


Christmas in Starling

by pleasanthell



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-03 12:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 22,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8714002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasanthell/pseuds/pleasanthell
Summary: “You know she’s never had a normal Christmas?” Quentin asked. “No stockings or anything? No presents and cocoa. So I was going to ask if you minded that she spent Christmas with us.”Sara thought about it then nodded. “Yeah. I think we should give her the best Christmas ever.”





	1. Chapter 1

She was going to get a break. No time jumping or killer aliens. One week of nothing.

Her bag was heavy on her shoulder, filled with souvenirs from different time periods and geographical locations – things she shouldn’t have taken, but couldn’t resist. She looked at her phone as she approached a safehouse she had always kept in Starling City – Star City. She shook her head. She’d never get used to calling it that.

The historic apartment she had for emergencies rented out nicely during festivals and holidays. She had amassed a small fortune while she was time traveling with the help of an automated reply system and the nice barista down the street that didn’t mind handing out the key to guests.

She looked both ways in the freezing night before stepping onto the wet street across from her apartment. Snow had just melted, leaving everything with a thin, frosty glaze. She watched her breath crystallized in the air with a grin. She loved her city and she had missed it. She inhaled the chilled air, feeling it coat her lungs and fill her chest. As much as it hurt to be back, she knew that the holidays were going to be especially hard on her dad and she had to push away her own sadness to be there for him.

The holidays wouldn’t be the same without Laurel. That’s for sure.

Sara could hear cars slowly moving down the side streets, ice crunching under the careful tires. As far as sounds went, it was one of her favorite. Despite the cold, she may have to sleep with the windows open just to listen to it.

Her phone rang as she opened the door to the building. She slid it out of her pocket and smiled when she saw it was her dad. She pressed the green answer button and pressed the phone to her ear. “Hey Dad.”

“Hey, sweetheart.” He sounded positively elated to see her. “Whew, I’m still getting used to being able to call you whenever I want.”

Sara chuckled starting her climb up the creaky wooden stairs. She glanced up, seeing the familiar square airspace that extended to the top floor. Each set to stairs led to a new square floor. An oddly space deficient plan, but one that gave her a view of many doors on many floors from her front door, with a nice view of the only door to the street. “Don’t get used to it alright?”

“I’ll try,” he sighed heavily. “I’ll be back in town day after tomorrow. I’m sorry I couldn’t get out of this. It’s just that my boss -”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sara interrupted him. “I get it. It’s not like I’ve been super accessible lately either. I’ll pick you up from the airport okay?”

“Sounds perfect,” Quentin couldn’t believe that he was talking to his daughter again. He missed them both so much, but being able to talk to Sara was all he could have asked for, for the holidays.

She hung up with her dad as she approached her door. Just as she set her hand on her knob, she realized that she forgot to get the key from the barista. She looked back down the stairs and decided that it was too far to walk back down. She’d had a long journey back to Starling – Star City. She just wanted to lie down.

She looked both ways down the square floor before whipping out a blade and forcing it into the keys lot. The metal knob squeaked and wailed as she turned the blade inside of the knob, rendering the lock inside useless.

She could replace it later. She just wanted to lie down. She used the deadbolt to keep the door closed before flipping on the lights. Brick walls flowed into high windows. The ceiling was a matrix of exposed ducts and wiring. The concrete floor was polished and clean. She dropped her bag by the door and walked the past the open kitchen and dining area to the living area. Around a ninety degree corner was her bed, large and tucked away from the rest of the open apartment. Off of the bed area, a sliding door opened up to her bathroom with a large clawfoot tub. Past the bathroom was her closet, which was kept closed and locked at all times.

She loved her apartment. It was her favorite things that she’d ever bought...borrowed, well stole. It was her favorite thing she’d ever stolen from the League of Assassins. For an international organization with thousands of operatives, they were really lax with keeping track of their real estate.

She walked through the bathroom and pressed on the closed closet door, about waist level. A hidden hatch popped open, revealing a bio-metric scanner. She pressed her finger to the small piece of glass and waited. She looked toward the bathtub while she was being scanned and decided that a bath was definitely in order.

The closet door opened with an overly dramatic whoosh and slid back into the wall. The closet was as tall as the apartment itself. Shelves, racks, and cases lined the walls all the way to the ceiling, containing weapons of every kind, and all of the regular clothes Sara couldn’t wear anymore. If she wore everyday clothes on missions, she wouldn’t have any clothes left.

The lights in the room were a cool blue and white, but when she pressed a button on the wall, it was all warm light that made it easier to pick out clothes.

She walked to a rack of clothes near the door and picked out white negligee that hung on a velvet wrapped hanger. After changing, brushing her teeth and moving her bag that was still near the front door to under her bed, she hopped up onto the soft surface.

Her bed was amazing and it was very easy for her to fall asleep in its familiarity.

Sleeping until she woke up was also not something she was used to and when she woke up, it was with a smile and not an alarm. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, light streaming into the apartment through the thick wooden blinds. Realizing that she didn’t actually _have_ to get out of bed was nice. The sun outside was muted by the blanket of clouds over the sky. 

She laid in bed for another ten minutes just happy to exist in one place, in one time. Her phone was perched on the corner of the nightstand and when she checked the time, she found it was still early. Despite not  _having_ to get up early, she did anyway. 

Another minute of motionlessness, set off her restlessness. She took a shower, dried her hair, and got dressed in some period appropriate clothing – jeans, brown boots (complete with hidden knife sheath inside), green sweater, and brown jacket. She topped it off with a scarf and grabbed her phone and wallet on her way out the door. 

Stopping for breakfast at the cafe where the barista kept her key didn’t take long. She even flirted with the barista because the barista blushed and seemed to enjoy it. She told the barista she’d be back in a week with new key and the barista joked about moving into the apartment herself. 

After breakfast and coffee, Sara went to the hardware store for a new doorknob. She found one she liked, but didn’t want to buy all the tools to install it when she could borrow her dad’s. That also gave her an excuse to snoop around Quentin’s house for any Christmas presents he might have gotten her. She was always bad at waiting for surprises. Plus, she needed some idea of what she was going to get her dad. 

With a doorknob in hand, she got out of her Uber in front of her dad’s house. She thanked the man with the poor taste in music before closing the door. 

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she checked it, sure she was caught by her dad somehow. She already had a plan of attack. She was going to start in his closet, then work her way toward her old bedroom. 

But the text wasn’t her dad. Thea invited her to Christmas dinner. Apparently word traveled fast that she was in town. She didn’t answer right away, not sure what her dad wanted to do. She’d wait for him to decide.

She had a key to the front door and managed to open it without  ruining the knob. 

She was hit with an immediate wall of warmth stepping into her dad’s house, both physical and emotional. Something about it always felt like home no matter how many times she’d left or how far she’d traveled. 

She took off her jacket and closed the door, ready to start her search for her dad’s tools and maybe her Christmas presents. With her jacket halfway down her arm, she caught a whiff of something new. It was a different smell than what her dad’s house usually smelled like. There were hints of floral, jasmine and some kind of tea leaf. 

Slowly she let her jacket drop to her hands before handing it up on the coat rack. She pulled the knife out of her boot and crept deeper into the house, waiting for an ambush. 

In the kitchen, she spotted a kettle on the stove. When she touched it, the stainless steel was still warm. A single mug was in the drying rack next to the sink, a thin sheen of water still slowly making it’s way back into the sink. The lingering scent was one that pulled at a string in the recesses of her memory. Something familiar and comforting, but not something she could put her finger on.

It wasn’t have been a remarkable find had her dad not been out of town for four days. She very swiftly searched the rest of the house, the only startling thing she found was that the living room had been decorated for Christmas. Elegant stockings were hung around the fireplace. A tree was placed in the corner, warm white lights creating a glow while the silver tinsel shimmered. 

Sara knelt down in front of the fireplace and found that despite being cleaned out, the bricks inside were still warm. She pulled out her phone and moved to the kitchen window, searching for any sign that something was amiss. She dialed her dad and pressed the phone to her ear.

He answered cheerily. “Hey honey.”

“Hey,” she was less than excited. “Is your car at the airport?”

“No,” he answered. “I’m letting a friend borrow it while I’m out of town.”

Sara paused, then asked. “Someone’s been in your house.”

“Same friend,” Quentin quickly replied. “Hey, are you snooping around the house for your presents.”

Sara smiled, knowing she’d been caught and relieved that there was nothing to worry about. “I actually came to borrow some tools.”

“In the garage, sweetheart,” he told her. 

“You’re living room looks great by the way,” Sara glanced at it as she passed through on her way to the garage.

Quentin hummed then asked, “What do you mean?”

“The tree and the stockings,” Sara mentioned. “Looks nice.”

“Oh...” Quentin drawled out. He inhaled. “Yeah, thanks.”

Something about the way he spoke made Sara believe it was the first time he heard of it. “Must have been your friend. Looks nice though.”

“While I’ve got you on the line,” Quentin added, the background noise on his end of the line got louder and then more quiet. “Thea invited us to Christmas dinner.”

“Yeah,” Sara opened the door to the garage and stepped inside the musty enclosure. “I was just going to follow your lead on that.”

“You don’t mind going?” Quentin asked.

“No,” Sara shrugged. She could care less as long as she was with her dad. “I have to get something to wear though.”

Quentin asked. “D’you need some money? I don’t know how well time traveling superhero pays.”

Sara chuckled. “Not well, but I got it covered.” She moved toward her dad’s toolbox, but something caught her eye across the garage. On her dad’s workbench, a large apparatus sat, clamped to the sturdy wooden table. She walked over to it and ran her fingers across one of the metal bars. She turned one of the cranks as she asked her dad, “Taking up archery, dad?”

“What?” he asked.

“There’s a bow press in your garage,” Sara turned the crank on the side of it and watched the arms of the machine move apartment. She’d used many bow presses in her day, first with the League of Assassins and then with the Arrow.

Quentin audibly scrambled for something to say. “Well you know, everyone is doing it now.”

It was obvious her dad wasn’t telling her something and Sara was feeling just forgiving enough to let him keep his secrets until he got home. She told him so.

He exhaled. “I promise I will tell you everything when I get home.” 

For the life of her, Sara couldn’t figure out why he was keeping a secret. But she’d let him have it if it helped. “Alright, Pop.”

“I gotta go,” he said. “I’ll send you the flight info so you can pick me up. And not on a motorcycle.”

Sara laughed. “C’mon Dad, it’s fun.”

“Not for me,” he laughed. His laughter faded out and he added. “I’m glad you’re home, sweetheart.”

“Me too,” Sara stated. “See you tomorrow.”

“I changed my flight. I hope you don’t mind picking me up tonight,” Quentin added.

A broad smile took over Sara’s face. “Perfect.”

They talked out the details and Sara retrieved her dad’s smaller toolbox. Sara hung up with her dad just as she stepped out of the front door. She really wished that he dad’s car was there because she didn’t want to have to take a cab or Uber everywhere. 

But when she turned around, her dad’s car was in the driveway. Sara looked up and down the street, not seeing anyone or any sort of movement at all. She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but she was going to make sure there were no explosives rigged to the car before taking it back to her apartment. 


	2. Chapter 2

Apparently walking into her apartment building with a toolbox and the appearance of competency was a bad idea because Sara spent the time between fixing her own door and nightfall, repairing other people’s apartments. She did her best to have a good mood. After all, she didn’t have much else to do until she picked up her dad. 

After being paid in cookies, cakes, and various other holiday treats Sara locked up her apartment and took off for the airport. She found her dad already standing outside, his bag at his feet. She parked the car at the curb, jumped out, and greeted him with a hug. 

It was a warm, sad hug of two people who had lost the same person. They were the only people who would mourn Laurel as close family. They were the only ones who had to endure holidays, having spent all of Laurel’s holidays with her. 

Sara felt a familiar anger rising in herself. She felt the hunger. She was going to have to help out the Arrow a bit after her dad went to bed otherwise the bloodlust would consume her. 

“Let’s go get something to eat, huh?” Quentin asked. “I’m starving.”

Sara picked up her dad’s bag and put it in the trunk. “Let me guess. Big Belly Burger?”

“You know me so well.” He opened the passenger’s door and sat down. 

Sara started driving them toward the fast food restaurant nearest her dad’s house. She asked him about the conference and his flight. She was forgiving in his secrecy surrounding the mysterious stranger who decorates and drinks tea. And Quentin’s sudden love of bows. 

A high pitched whirring noise caught Sara’s attention before they got to the restaurant. She cocked her head, listening to it. Then she rolled down the window to see where it was something from. It was a motorcycle. A sport bike. And another motorcycle. 

Sara quickly turned a corner and pressed down on the gas. 

Quentin grabbed onto the door handle. “What are you doing?”

“There’s a chase,” Sara grinned. Just what she wanted. A fight. 

She stopped just before train tracks. The motorcycles were coming toward them. She hopped out of the car and scrambled onto the hood, then onto the roof. The first motorcycle flew by, popping up in the air just after hitting the tracks before landing and speeding off. 

“Sara, what are you-” Quentin asked, but was answered when Sara jumped off of the roof of the car and landed on the back of the second motorcycle. 

He sighed and walked around the car to the driver’s side. “I’ve been in town five minutes...”

Sara grabbed onto the shoulders of the person driving, steadying herself. She held onto fistfuls of leather wrapped shoulders and did her best not to be slapped in the face by a long piece of fabric flying like a black and red flag behind the driver. 

The driver’s head was covered in the material, but Sara had no interest in who it was. She pulled out her knife and put it to the driver’s throat. “Keep going.”

The driver nodded, not looking back. 

Sara looked ahead at the other motorcycle, noticing the brand of the local supervillain’s minions on his jacket. Sara put her feet on the pegs of the motorcycle and jumped up, putting her feet on the tail of the motorcycle. Once she got a full view, she found a bow and arrows attached to the bike she was riding. She leaned over the driver and grabbed them, catching a whiff of perfume that was all too familiar. 

Sara froze for a moment as memories overtook her. The hint of perfume took her back to her rescue from the wreckage of The Amazo, long, cold nights in Nanda Parbat, hot humid nights on missions, fun days on beaches, and the comfort of a person who always loved her no matter what. A dingy prison where she said goodbye.

But they were on a speeding bike, so she didn’t have time to reminisce. She grabbed the bow and arrows, and stood up on the back of the bike, hooking her left leg over Nyssa’s shoulder. Nyssa hooked her arm around Sara’s ankle to ensure that she wouldn’t fall and did her best to keep the bike steady. 

It only took one arrow to hit the motorcycle in front of them just right to throw it into a telephone pole, flinging the driver down the street. Nyssa stopped the motorcycle with a slight fishtail, giving Sara a head start in her run toward the criminal she had been chasing.

Sara ran to the man on the ground and used her boot to turn him over. “What did you do, pal?”

“Nothing,” he coughed, looking weak and pathetic until he jumped up, grabbing her leg and tackling her to the ground. 

Sara laughed when her back hit the ground. She easily pulled her legs back and wrapped them around his neck, then twisted her body so that he was on the ground, suffocating under her ankles. “Let me know when you give up.”

The man hit the ground next to him before all the life was pulled out of him. He rolled away from Sara and drew a gun from the back of his pants. He pointed it at her as he stood. She was still clearly amused, standing up from the ground and dusting off her clothes. She sighed when she saw a hole in her jeans. “This is why I can’t wear regular clothes.”

“Who the fuck are you?” the man demanded, shaking the gun at her. 

“I’d put that down if I were you,” Nyssa’s commanding voice was steady as she aimed a drawn arrow at the man. 

He looked from Sara to Nyssa. Sara saw the decision on his face before he turned the gun from her to Nyssa. She dove for Nyssa, tackling her to the ground as a bullet flew and an arrow was released. 

Quentin arrived in his car as the man fell to the ground screaming with an arrow through his knee. Sara quickly pushed up off of Nyssa in the headlights of the car. She didn’t feel any pain on herself, but knew that there was a bullet somewhere and she was terrified it was buried in Nyssa.

Nyssa looked down at her chest, covered in black material with accents of red. She winced when she touched a hole in the black material that swirled around her body. She grunted softly when she dug her fingers into her costume and pulled out a spent crushed bullet. “There are so many guns in this country.” She rolled her eyes and stood up. 

“Yeah,” Quentin spoke into his phone as he walked past. “One of those vigilantes took him out.” He paused looking at Nyssa. “He did what?...oh well, I’m glad she caught him.” He gestured over his shoulder for Nyssa to go. 

Sara stood up, watching Nyssa move for her motorcycle. She didn’t even look back when she hopped onto it and sped away. 

The second her dad was off of the phone, Sara stated, “That’s your friend that drinks the tea and decorates the house. The bow press in the garage is hers.”

Quentin nodded. He put his arm around Sara. “I was going to tell you at dinner.” He watched the man writhe on the ground in pain. “She’s apparently on the run or something. Doesn’t have anywhere to go. No family.” He sighed. “I couldn’t say no.”

Sara swallowed and looked at the ground. She knew all of those things about Nyssa, but she never thought Nyssa would be so alone. She had had riffs with the League before, but it seemed her last one was permanent and the princess of the League was on the run. 


	3. Chapter 3

They got to Big Belly Burger an hour later after waiting for the police and giving statements. Sara took a long drink of her milkshake and picked up some fries. “So how long has Nyssa been living with you?”

“She hasn’t been living with me,” Quentin answered. “She just comes over sometimes. We’ll have dinner. Talk about areas that she needs to patrol more. The Arrow has been focusing on some bigger fish, leaving regular criminals free reign.” He gestured around with some french fries. “Or so they think.” Quentin shrugged. “Violent crimes are down across the board. Case closure rates are nearing ninety percent.”

“She’s doing good?” Sara asked.

Quentin nodded. “The Arrow was good, but very focused on certain criminals. Mid-level and high-level.” He scratched his forehead. “Nyssa is very surgical. She’ll carve out an entire drug smuggling ring over a weekend starting with low level street dealers, all the way up to Interpol busts in Europe. We’ll never be crime free, but we’re safer. That’s for sure.” He saw a pensive look take over his daughter and nodded toward her. “She didn’t want me to tell you she was in town because she thought it would cause you,” he paused and made finger quotes. “Undue stress.” He picked up his burger.

Sara shook her head. “There’s no undue stress.” 

“Tell that to your face,” Quentin gestured to her with his burger.

Sara smiled faintly. “It’s not stress.” She shook her head and looked down at the table. “I just… wish she would have told me.” She took a bite of her burger, thoughtfully chewing. When she swallowed, she asked, “Did you know what happened last time we saw each other?”

Quentin shook his head.

“She was… locked away in a,” Sara cleared her throat, emotions started build up inside of her, a tsunami threatening to overwhelm her. “a prison. And apparently she got out, but… she told me to leave her there and I just...I just did.” Sara shrugged. She turned her palms up and just looked at them like she didn’t know why they didn’t fight harder to get Nyssa out. 

“I’m sure you both had good reasons,” Quentin reached across the table and put his hand on top of hers. 

“Hers was good. Her reasons always are,” Sara looked up at her dad ashamed of what she hadn’t done. “She knew that if I helped her, I’d be running from the League again. She didn’t want that for me.” She picked up a french fry and shoved it into her mouth using it to wash down her feelings. She tucked some stray hair behind her ear. “Anyway, what’s going on with her?”

“You know she’s never had a normal Christmas?” Quentin asked. “No stockings or anything? No presents and cocoa. So I was going to ask if you minded that she spent Christmas with us.”

Sara thought about it then nodded. “Yeah. I think we should give her the best Christmas ever.”

In the car, Quentin tapped his fingers on the chilled window. “You know I’m not trying to push you two together or anything right?” He looked over at Sara who was still concentrating on the road. “She’s just a friend. She was good friends with Laurel. And obviously you two were close. I’m not trying to butt in.”

Sara smiled and shook her head. “I know you’re not.”

Quentin spoke with his hands. “She’s a good kid. A little like hanging out with a deadly encyclopedia, but she’s just..on her own now.”

Sara bit the inside of her cheek, eyes still forward. “I know.” She looked over at her dad in the red wash of a stoplight. “Thanks for looking out for her.”

Quentin shrugged, shaking off the praise. “It’s my job. Helping out people who need it. Even if I think putting a mask on and shooting arrows at people with bullets is a little loony.”

“Nyssa thinks gun are clumsy,” Sara pressed the gas when the light turned green. “Ra’s said guns were impersonal. If you were going to take a life, you should have to feel it in your hands.”

“Ra’s was her dad?” Quentin asked.

Sara nodded. 

He shook his head. “No wonder she’s got some fun ideas.”

The car rolled to a stop in the driveway and Sara cut off the car. She ran her hands over the steering wheel. 

Quentin had opened his door before Sara even moved to get out. He looked back at her. “You alright?”

Sara looked at the closed garage door and nodded. She cleared her throat and pushed away the butterflies in her stomach. It sounded like Nyssa needed her and she didn’t need to be carrying the weight of her nerves with her. She unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. “I’m good.”


	4. Chapter 4

S moke was already coming out of the chimney and the lights were on insid e . The outside of the house had been decorated with classic multicolored lights since the last time Sara was there.

“I see she got started without us,” Quentin stood on the path leading up to his house with his hands on his hips. 

Sara smiled, holding a bag of french fries as she walked to the front door. “Wait til you see the living room.”

Quentin joined his daughter on the porch. She stepped to the side to let him go first with his bag. He opened the unlocked door and called. “It’s us.”  He turned to Sara, “One time I walked in unannounced and had a knife pulled on me.”

That sounded like Nyssa. She stepped into the warmth after her father and closed the door. 

The house smelled like popcorn and cider. Just inside the door, Sara spotted Nyssa  sitting on the floor in the living room, a bowl of popcorn next to her. 

Nyssa looked up and smiled when she saw Quentin. “How was your trip?”

He smiled back. “It was alright. What are you doing?”

Sara lingered at the door, not sure how to approach Nyssa. She stayed out of Nyssa’s eye line to gather herself. 

“I’m putting popcorn on a string,” Nyssa stated. “I saw it in one of the Christmas films you own.”

Quentin chuckled and picked up his bags. “Let me put my bag up, then I’ll help.” He looked back at the door where Sara was and jerked his head to the side, trying to urge her into the house. 

Sara was hesitant, but walked into the living room, the old wooden floorboards creaking. Nyssa looked up at Sara, her hair falling away from her face. Nyssa had to have taken a shower since their motorcycle adventure. 

Nyssa tried her best to go off of Sara’s cues, but seeing Sara always made her smile and this time was no different. “Happy holidays, Sara.”

Sara smiled back, a familiarity coming back to her. “Did you make cider? It smells so good.”

“I did,” Nyssa abandoned her string of popcorn and stood up. “I did put a little alcohol in it because the woman on the internet video was very insistent that there be rum in the cider.”

“You finally learned how to use YouTube?” Sara asked.

Nyssa rolled her eyes. “Begrudgingly so.” She pulled the sleeves of her green over-sized sweater up to her elbows.

Sara looked down at Nyssa’s sweater and smiled, seeing the reindeer scene around an outdoor Christmas tree stitched into her sweater. “I like your sweater.”

Nyssa looked down at it. “Thank you.” She seemed genuinely delighted with Sara’s compliment. “Someone called it ugly today, but in an affectionate way so I didn’t hang him from a lamp post.”

Sara laughed. “Yeah, ugly sweaters are a holiday tradition.”

Nyssa moved in front of the stove where the cider was still warm in the pot. “You really think it’s ugly? I quite like it.”

Sara leaned on door frame going into the kitchen and watched Nyssa get holiday themed mugs down from the cabinet before ladling the cider into  two of them. She took in Nyssa’s black leggings that ran down her legs into thick taupe socks. She shook her head. “No, I think it’s looks great on you.”

“Do you have an ugly sweater?” Nyssa asked, turning around with two mugs in her hands. She offered one to Sara who accepted it, hyper-aware of her fingers brushing against Sara’s in the exchange.

Sara shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“You can borrow one of mine,” Nyssa smiled. She offered up her mug in a toast and Sara gently clicked their mugs together. 

“Okay,” Quentin announced, walking back into the room with a record in his hand. “I think it’s time to start the Christmas music.”

Sara groaned as ‘Blue Christmas’ started playing through the stereo. Quentin joined the women in the kitchen and Nyssa walked to the microwave and pulled out another holiday themed mug. She handed it to Quentin. “Non-alcoholic cider.”

Quentin nodded in thanks to Nyssa and took a sip. He hummed and looked into his cup. “This is good.”

“It is,” Sara used her mug to gesture to Nyssa. “Thanks.”

“And the living room looks amazing,” Quentin mentioned.

“Oh,” Sara picked up the bag that she had forgotten about on the counter. “We brought you fries.”

Nyssa took the bag from Sara. “Thank you.” She opened the bag and took out a fry, putting it into her mouth. She moaned and then looked toward the living room. “Should we string french fries and put them on the tree as well?”


	5. Chapter 5

“I don’t know,” Nyssa leaned back on the arm of the couch, legs curled up under her. She showed Sara her phone. “There’s nothing on here where anyone put fries on their Christmas tree.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sara put her hands on her hips and looked at the tree. “It looks good.”

“Brings out the tinsel,” Quentin looked at the french fries evenly spaced between the popcorn.

There was a faint buzzing noise and all eyes moved to the phone on the coffee table. Nyssa picked it up and put the phone to her ear. She didn’t speak, but it was apparent someone was speaking to her. Then she bit her lip, taking in the information. “Alright, put it on the GPS.” She hung up her phone a second being there was a soft ping. She looked up at Quentin, “Do you mind if I change in your guest room?”

He gestured down the hallway and Nyssa started walking off.

“Where are you going?” Sara asked, following her down the hallway.

“Just some business to take care of,” Nyssa turned into the guest room that used to be Sara’s bedroom and immediately shucked off her ugly sweater. She used her foot to slip under the bed, then hook around a backpack. She picked up the backpack and dropped it on the bed. 

Sara leaned on the door frame. “C’mon. I wanna help.”

“It’s just a fire,” Nyssa gave Sara a look of warning as she peeled off her tights and dug some new pants out of the bag. “Nothing to concern yourself with.”

“If you’re going, it concerns me,” Sara stepped into the room, paying no mind to Nyssa’s state of undress.

Nyssa didn’t speak about it again. She put on what looked to be a thick, but form-fitting vest that still had a bullet hole in it, then draped her cape and cowl over  it. She put her ugly sweater on the bed and pulled on some more combat ready boots. Nyssa looked toward the door where Sara was still standing, waiting to be told where Nyssa was going. 

Nyssa held Sara’s eyes and firmly stated, “No.”

“I’ll just follow you,” Sara shrugged. 

Nyssa pulled a knife out of the bag and tucked it into her belt, trying to not to let Sara get to her.

“Or I could just look up where the nearest fire is,” Sara pulled her phone out of her pocket and waved it toward Nyssa.

Nyssa snatched the phone out of Sara’s hand with fingers as quick as a viper strike. She held it until Sara looked at her, her voice a deadly whisper, “Every time a Lance woman gets involved with me something bad happens. I will not let something happen to you again.” There were tears in her eyes that she quickly blinked away before handing Sara her phone back and stalking out the door. 

Sara just stood in her old bedroom for a moment. She hear a motorcycle engine start and listened as it pulled away. She looked down at her phone and then at the bed, unsure of what to do. 

When she walked into the living room, Quentin was putting another log onto the fire. He looked up at Sara who just stood in the entry to the hallway, looking at the floor. 

Sara chewed on her bottom lip for a moment then met her dad’s eyes. “Dad, I gotta...” she pointed her phone over her shoulder. 

He nodded slowly and stood up straight. He crossed the room to his daughter and pulled her into his arms. “I know, kiddo.” He took a deep breath while he held her. “Be careful though.”

Sara held onto her dad for a few more seconds before letting go and running out the door. 

As she got into her dad’s car, she dialed a familiar number. 

“Heeeello?” Felicity answered. 

“Hey. It’s Sara.” She put the car in reverse and pulled out of the driveway. “I need a mask.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Nyssa told me not to tell you anything,” Felicity spoke quickly through the phone. 

Sara huffed. “You can tell me where she is and where I can get a mask or I can go to the dollar store and follow the smell of smoke.”

Felicity made a long drawn out groan. “If I tell you will you stay outside unless she needs help?”

“Sure,” Sara made a face that she was glad Felicity couldn’t see otherwise she’d know she was lying.

“Okay,” Felicity looked at one of her screens. “There is a motorcycle with an emergency bag a few blocks from you. It’s an an abandoned gas station, but there’s only a mask, an earpiece, and a voice changer in it. No weapons.”

A few minutes later, Sara was riding up to the fire on the motorcycle she had borrowed from Team Arrow. “You didn’t tell me it was a factory.” Sara stopped at the open fence where a large building was ablaze. She saw men running from the building as a firetruck stopped near the perimeter. 

“How many people are there inside?” Sara asked.

“I’ve lost all but two cameras, but according to the work schedule today and how many have come out...” Felicity counted very quickly. “Uh, six, seven...four. There are four workers left inside the building.”

“And Nyssa,” Sara added.

Nyssa entered the building seven minutes ago,” Felicity stated. “She’s in the east wing going room by room.” Felicity paused. “Nyssa?” If there was a reply Sara couldn’t hear it. Felicity spoke again. “That is where the explosion happened. The areal view shows that it collapsed. You can’t go in there.” Another paused. Then, “Nyssa? Nyssa!”

Sara didn’t wait for the green light to go into the building, she gunned the engine of her motorcycle and rode right for the open loading dock. She got a bit of air after going up the ramp and pushed the bike further into the burning building. 

“Where is she!” Sara yelled through her earpiece to Felicity.

Felicity didn’t hesitate. She quickly directed Sara down the cavernous inferno until Sara could no longer guild her bike through it. She ran through the hallway and saw a man running toward her. He ran right for her, pointing behind him. “She told me to go get the firefighters, but I’m scared I’ll be too late.”

“Where is she?” Sara asked.

He pointed her down the hallway. “Then left. He’s stuck under a pipe.”

Sara directed the man out of the building and then ran to where Nyssa was. She spotted Nyssa across the massive room, helping a man with a mangled leg, limp toward the exit.

Sara had never seen Nyssa more furious. It wasn’t a violent yelling kind of furious. It was an earth trembling storm of rage. For the moment, she ignored it and ran to the limping man. She put his other arm around her shoulders and together they carried him to Sara’s bike where Nyssa drove him out out of the building straight into the arms of the firefighters. 

“Anyone else in there?” the fire chief asked Nyssa.

Nyssa shook her head. “He was the last one.” She looked back into the building and knew that Sara had taken a different way out. She turned the bike around and found Sara jumping out of a window. Despite being mad at Sara, she jerked her head toward the back of the bike. Sara hopped on and they drove in silence around the building to where Nyssa’s bike was hidden in the brush behind the perimeter fence. 

She got off of Sara’s bike and walked over to hers, easily starting it. 

Sara tapped the earpiece in her ear and asked. “Nyssa?”

When Nyssa looked at her, she knew she could hear her over the roar of the motorcycle engines. 

“I think we should talk. At my place,” Sara held Nyssa’s eyes. 

Nyssa’s jaw shifted around. She was evidently conflicted.

But Sara needed to talk to her. “Look, I know you don’t want to lose me again, but I  _can’t_ lose you.”

The heartfelt words were all Nyssa needed to agree to follow Sara back to her apartment. 

They parked in a parking garage a few blocks from Sara’s apartment and walked through the darkened streets side by side. 

Sara smelled her sweater and tried her push the smell out of her nose. “We smell like smoke.”

Nyssa looked down at her clothes. Though they were her combat clothes, if she had the choice, they wouldn’t be what she would have worn into a fire. “I suppose I’ll have to get Felicity to share her secret of getting smoke out of clothes.”

“Good luck,” Sara pulled her keys out of her pocket and pushed open the door to her apartment building. “Felicity likes her secrets.”

Her phones ran as they walked up the stairs and she looked at the caller ID. “Speak of the devil.” She pressed answer and put the phone to her ear. “Another fire?”

“No,” Felicity seemed relaxed. “I was going to asked what they two of your are going to wear to the Queen family Christmas dinner.”

“Oh,” Sara looked over at Nyssa. “What are you wearing to Thea’s Christmas dinner?”

Nyssa shrugged. “I was hoping to go shopping tomorrow.”

“Mind if I tag along?” Felicity’s voice popped over into Nyssa’s ear. “If I go alone, I won’t buy anything.”

“Of course,” Nyssa smiled, continuing up the stairs. She looked to Sara. “Do you have something to wear?”

Sara shook her head. “I just got into town.”

“Great,” Felicity stated. “It’s a date. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go feed my cat. I’m glad neither of you were broiled. Goodnight.”

Felicity hung up and Nyssa pulled the earpiece out of her ear. She tucked it away into her pocket and stopped walking when she saw Sara put a key into a lock. 

“I just got this doorknob,” Sara stated. “I kind of...ruined the last one.”

Nyssa nodded, knowing that on occasion Sara was known to ruin such things when she forgot her keys. 

Sara pushed open the door and let Nyssa walk in first. Nyssa took in the entirety of the apartment and nodded in approval. “It’s beautiful. Very you.”

Sara grinned. “Thanks.” She took off her jacket and pointed around the corner. “You can take a shower if you want.” 

“You don’t mind?” Nyssa asked.

Sara shook her head. She sat down on her sectional couch and picked up the remote. “I’ll just catch up on two years of TV while you’re in there.”

“I certainly hope I don’t take that long,” Nyssa teased before disappearing into the bathroom.

The shower turned on and the glass door clicked open. Sara leaned back on her couch and flipped on the TV, but wasn’t really interested in anything that was on. She flipped channels until she saw a show on baking for the holidays. She wasn’t particularly interest in it, but she figured Nyssa would appreciate if she baked something eventually. 

It had been a long day and a long night. She could still smell the smoke coming out of her clothes, but was more tired than anything. And she still wanted to talk to Nyssa. 

Deciding that she wasn’t the best about talking about her feelings, Sara got up from the couch during a commercial and shuffled to the kitchen, kicking her boots off on the way. In the cabinet above the stove, a small cache of liquor was hidden, dusty and aged. She pulled down a bottle of scotch, inspected the bottle and got two glasses down. She hoped it would be a fine enough liquor for a woman who was used to the finest of everything. 

She picked up the glasses and walked toward the bathroom. She turned her head away from the door, but reached her arm inside and put the scotch on the counter. She could hear Nyssa laugh in the shower, almost seductively. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, Ta-er al-Usfar.”

Sara smiled, her face pressed to the wall, still facing away from the open bathroom door. “Just trying to be respectful.”

“Noble Sara,” Nyssa cooed as she turned the shower off. 

There was silence for a moment, then Sara stepped away from the bathroom. “Uh, are you hungry? We can order something.”

“I didn’t get to finish my french fries did I?” Nyssa mused. She took a towel from the rack and started to dry herself off.

“I can go get your a burger,” Sara offered.

“Actually,” Nyssa stepped out of the bathroom, hair still dripping, in nothing but a towel. “I think I would quite like one of those round bread...sauce, cheese abominations.”

Sara laughed and took Nyssa in with a fond smile. “A pizza?”

“Yes,” Nyssa smiled back, a bit bashful. “Please.”

“Of course,” Sara bowed her head, then walked to the couch to retrieve her phone.

“May I borrow some clothes?” Nyssa asked from the bathroom. 

“Everything’s in the closet,” Sara called, but remembered that her clothes was armored. She walked into the bathroom while she ordered pizza on her phone. “Sorry. It’s locked.”

“Would it be safe to assume there is quite a bit more in the closet than clothes?” Nyssa asked with an impish grin.

Sara looked back at Nyssa, still only in a towel. For a moment, she forgot how to speak completely. A lot of people didn’t look good with their hair wet in the unflattering light of the bathroom. Nyssa was not one of those people. Sara managed to gather herself up enough to joke, “There’s shoes too.”

Nyssa smiled at Sara’s answer and her hesitancy. She always enjoyed how flustered Sara could become under the right circumstances. 

Sara opened the closet for Nyssa and ordered the pizza while she walked out of the bathroom, leaving Nyssa to anything she wanted. 

Sara fell back onto the couch and put her arms across the back of it, getting comfortable on the couch in what was rarely her home. She looked at the moving colors on the TV, but wasn’t focused on what pictures the colors formed. She picked up her scotch off of the coffee table and took a sip, trying to dull the electricity rushing across her skin. It was a kind of excitement that was comfortable and she knew the source of it. 

The source stepped out of the bathroom in black leggings, a white v-neck, and a gray zip-up hoodie with her glass of scotch. Nyssa surveyed Sara on her way to the kitchen and picked up the bottle of scotch  that was still on the counter. She opened it on her way back to the couch and gestured with the bottle signaling the intention to refill Sara’s glass. Sara raised her glass and watched Nyssa fill the glass halfway. 

“My turn I guess,” Sara stood up from the couch with her scotch. She pointed to the remote on the couch next to where she had been sitting. “You can change the channel. I wasn’t really watching it.”

Nyssa sunk down into the couch and looked up at the television. “Oh, I read about those.”

Sara looked over her shoulder at the TV and smiled. “Gingerbread houses.”

“Yes,” Nyssa grinned. “They are quite festive.”

With an airy laugh and a nod, Sara turned away, walking toward the bathroom. She was going to have to make gingerbread houses with Nyssa, the prospect of which didn’t actually seem all that boring.


	7. Chapter 7

When she got out of the shower, the pizza had already arrived. Sara was dressed just as comfortably as Nyssa and took her place in the opposite corner of the couch from Nyssa. The pizza was in the box between them, open and nearly gone. 

“American pizza is much different than Italian pizza,” Nyssa commented looking over the slice she had already half-eaten. “It’s very sweet.”

Sara looked at her pizza as well, but not really having a critique. “I haven’t been to Italy in the a while.” She looked over at Nyssa. “Last time I was, my roommate nearly strangled me to death.”

“I’m sure your _roommate_ was just surprised that you fell from the ceiling in an empty basilica in the middle of a reconnaissance mission,” Nyssa playfully replied. “Also, your roommate keenly remembers letting you drive her favorite car the next day and you totaling it.”

Sara sucked in air through her teeth. “Shit. I forgot about that.” She nodded toward Nyssa. “You still have that scar on your arm from the wreck?”

Nyssa picked up her arm and looked it over before finding the long thin scar near her elbow. “In your defense, we were being shot at.”

It seemed like such a long time ago. For  Sara , it was literally a lifetime ago. She tossed her crust back into the box and picked up her scotch. It was quiet for a time. Quiet and comfortable.

“I never forgot about you,” Sara spoke suddenly, but softly. The TV had gone dark from lack of use and the only light in the room snuck in between the blinds, painting the room in stripes of shadow.

“I should hope not,” Nyssa finished off her scotch and placed the glass on the coffee table. She settled into the corner of the couch. “I taught you how to sword fight.”

Sara lolled her head over to look at Nyssa and saw that Nyssa knew what she was really speaking out, she was just giving her an out. She knew Sara was bad at talking about her feelings and she knew that Sara had a tendency to stay something emotional and then bail immediately after. But she wasn’t going to this time because this time it was important to Sara. 

Sara filled her chest with air and stared straight at Nyssa. “The whole time you were in Nanda Parbat, I never forgot. I never planned to leave you there. I thought this mission through time would take a week, maybe a month.” She looked down at her lap. “Then weeks turned to months,  a nd next thing I know  Jade sends me a message saying that you’ve escaped and the League is no more.” Sara took a deep breath. “But there are members – former members – that are hunting you, aren’t there?”

“They’ve formed a group,” Nyssa used the tip of her finger to trace the top seem of the pillow next to her. “It seems I have finally united them with their hatred of me. They think I destroyed my father’s legacy.” 

“You didn’t-” Sara started.

Nyssa cut her off. “I did. And I’d do it again.” She looked up at Sara and held her eyes. “Growing up it was something I believed in. I thought we were doing good. Then I realized that I had been doing bad for so long that there was no making up for it.” Nyssa sighed softly. She rested her head against her palm and looked at Sara. 

“Is that what you’re doing here?” Sara asked. “Trying to make up for the bad. Because I think you’ve made up for more than your fair share.” She gestured outside. “My dad told me what you’d been doing. It’s amazing. Ollie and I haven’t even turned out those numbers.”

Nyssa smiled at the passion with which Sara defended her. That was one of the things she loved most about Sara, her passion. She dropped her hand that was holding her head and clenched her fist. “I should come straight back. Instead I stayed to fight. Carried out a few personal vendettas.” She paused, biting her bottom lip. “When I got back, it was too late.  There are some things that can’t be made up for. ”

Sara’s eyes dropped when she realized Nyssa was talking about Laurel. It seemed she wasn’t the only one that blamed  themselves . Maybe it was all of their faults or none of their faults, a combination of some of their faults.  Not that analyzing and dolling out percentages would bring Laurel back. 

“You two got close,” Sara offered as an extension to Nyssa’s story and a solid way to state her own conclusions. 

Nyssa smiled softly, eyes shimmering, but cheeks dry. “I think she was the greatest friend I’ve ever had.”

Sara nodded. She could see it. She felt the same way. She looked over at Nyssa, joy of memories taking over her face. “You know she liked  to slip you into conversation whenever she could. Very artfully though so it didn’t seem like she was trying to entice me back to Starling.”

The smile that broke out on Nyssa’s face was absolutely devastating to Sara in the best of ways. “I may have drunkenly confessed my undying love for you a time or two.”

Hearing that warmed Sara’s heart. She knew it was always there. Nyssa’s love never wavered. It was always a soft place to land when she was ready for it. Sara sipped her scotch and rested it on her knee. “How’s my dad been?”

“It’s been hard for him,” Nyssa confessed. “But he’s so proud of what she became. Laurel always wanted to save the world. She may not have saved the whole world, but she changed a city – her city. I think she would have been proud of that.” Nyssa nodded firmly, keeping tight control of her emotions. 

When she looked over at Sara, she found her in tears. A silent stream of tears trickled down her face while she stared hard at the floor. Nyssa knew that look. Sara was furious and so saddened.

Nyssa swiftly moved the pizza box out of the way and crossed the couch to sit close to Sara. It only took one soft stroke of her fingers against Sara’s forearm for Sara to fall into her. Her head came to rest perfectly on Nyssa’s chest, tucked under Nyssa’s chin. 

Sara didn’t sob. She didn’t choke on tears or struggle to breath e . Sara sat still in Nyssa’s arms, tears trickling down her face like a stone fountain. She missed her sister dearly. She missed her sense of belonging. She missed her soft place to land. She wished she could just stop being so afraid her own feelings. 

After nearly an hour of silence, they moved to the bed  at Sara’s silent insistence . Nyssa had offered to leave, but Sara had asked her to stay in her roundabout Sara way.

They were resting in the cloud-like blankets and pillows, facing each other. Neither one was sure she were ready to go to sleep. 

“I go a lot of places and a lot of times,” Sara spoke into the darkness, though she could see the outline of Nyssa’s face. “A lot of the time it doesn’t feel real. It feels like I’m playing pretend and chasing bad guys through a video game.” She propped her head up and reached out with to stroke Nyssa’s hair. “This feels real. For the first time in a long time, everything feels so real.”

Nyssa looked up at Sara, not moving a muscle, afraid that if she did, Sara would stop touching her. “Is that a good thing?”

“It feels solid. Safe,” Sara answered.

“I have learned that no one is safe in my presence,” Nyssa sighed softly. 

Sara let her fingers graze Nyssa’s cheek. “What would it be like if we were together again? Right here in Starling – Star City?”

“You’re only in town for a week,” Nyssa tried not to get her hopes up. She tried to remain calm and disaffected. “Then you have to save the world.”

“I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want,” Sara let her fingers slide against Nyssa’s cheek until her palm flatted against her skin. 

“I have never wanted anything more than to be with you.”

“Even if I can only promise a week?”

“It shall be the most cherished week of my life.”


	8. Chapter 8

“You’re a very sexual person, Sara Lance. I don’t fault you for that. You had no commitment to me or to anyone.” It was morning and after a few hours of sleep, they had decided to have coffee in bed. Nyssa took a sip of her coffee and smiled down at Sara who was still lying with her head on the pillow. Somehow Sara’s sexual history across all history came up and Nyssa was tense at first, but understanding. “So, tell me what the Queen of France was like in bed.”

Sara grinned widely and wrapped her pillow around her head, rolling over to hide her face. “She seduced me!”

Nyssa rested her mug on her crossed legs and touched Sara’s leg through the blanket she was still wrapped up in. “I believe you. Sara Lance, so unable to resist the advances of powerful women.”

Sara rolled onto her back and released her pillow. She grabbed the pillow Nyssa used and put it on the pillow she had been lying on. She fell back onto the stack of pillows. “Well, as long as we’re in agreement that I seduced you the first time.”

“Now I don’t think...” Nyssa started to argue. She couldn’t come up with anything so she looked away with a slight blush crawling up her cheeks.

Sara laughed. “You pretty much had that look on your face, yeah.”

“You’ve always had a sort of roguish charm,” Nyssa brought her coffee to her lips, taking a short sip. “It’s difficult to resist.”

“I’ve seen you endure torture,” Sara took in Nyssa in all the glory of the morning sun. It was overcast, but the tall windows let in enough light to illuminate Nyssa with a glow that is reserved for angels. Sara knew that Nyssa wasn’t exactly an angel, but Nyssa had saved her enough times to believe that Nyssa was her guardian something. Stunning and deadly. 

Nyssa smiled in a prepossessing way. “Some things are more compelling than torture.”

“Yeah?” Sara took Nyssa’s hand and pulled it toward her. 

Nyssa barely had a chance to put her coffee on the nightstand before Sara had both of her hands. Sara pulled Nyssa’s hands up over her head, stretching Nyssa’s body to it’s full length and pulling Nyssa’s face close to hers. She had been waiting for Nyssa’s to initiate some kind of physical contact, but when it was obvious Nyssa was going to hang back, Sara knew she had to. Nyssa was always more patient than her anyway. 

Sara let go of Nyssa’s hand, leaving her in a position where she had to keep her hands against the bed or she’d collapse on top of Sara. Sara grinned, using Nyssa’s position to her advantage. She pushed Nyssa’s hair out of her face and cradled Nyssa’s face in her hands. After making absolutely sure that this was what Nyssa wanted, Sara pulled her face down, their lips barely brushing at first. It was the tender, scared kiss of two lovers who had been through more than their share of heartbreak and explosive endings. 

But it devolved into the kiss of two people who had only ever been at home with each other. A kiss that was familiar and safe, but always exciting. 

Sara’s hands moved away from Nyssa’s face and down to her sides as Nyssa struggled for some way to touch Sara. As much as Sara enjoyed free reign over Nyssa’s outstretched body, she wanted to be touched as well. In one swift movement, she rolled Nyssa onto her back. 

Immediately, Nyssa’s hands dove into Sara’s hair as Sara’s lips neared hers. “Better.”


	9. Chapter 9

Sara sat on the couch with her phone in her hand. She read the text she just got and called to Nyssa, “Do you mind going over to Dad’s?”

“Of course not,” Nyssa called back from the closet where she had borrowed the clothes of Sara’s that fit her best. She walked out in jeans, a t-shirt, and brown jacket that Sara knew had several hidden pocket, all of which Nyssa probably found and hid weapons in. 

Sara stood up from the couch with a smile and tucked her phone away. “I think you’re going to like what we find when we get there.”

“A surprise?” Nyssa asked. She smiled, betraying her words. “You don’t have to.”

“I do,” Sara held out her hand for Nyssa to take as the turned toward the door. 

Sara was facing away, so she didn’t see Nyssa hesitate. She automatically reached for Sara’s hand before stopping herself. Then she forced her hand forward to join with Sara’s. When their hands touched and Sara looked back at her with a smile, she couldn’t help, but smile back. 

“I guess I should return the bike,” Sara said when they stepped out into the morning. 

“I need to as well,” Nyssa held Sara’s hand as they crossed the street toward the parking garage they stored their motorcycles in. “My car is at the Cave.”

“The Cave?” Sara asked, clearly amused. 

“It’s what Felicity calls it,” Nyssa smiled back. “What else would you call it?”

Sara thought about it, then nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. The Cave.”

They hopped on their motorcycles and raced as inconspicuously as they could to Verdant. Nyssa to the lead into the garage that was built under the club and pulled into a spot between two other identical motorcycles. She stopped her bike and looked over at Sara stopping next to her. 

Before they could even get their helmets off, a loud voice came over the speakers. “This is your robot overlord.”

“Ah,” Nyssa smiled as she removed her helmet. She looked up. “Felicity. How are you?”

“Great,” Felicity answered happily, her voice echoing through the concrete. “If you want to come upstairs, I have a question.”

Nyssa looked at Sara and asked with a delighted grin, “Do we have time?”

“Of course,” Sara nodded. 

They hung their helmets up on the way to the elevator and Nyssa pressed the button to get to the training floor. 

“There’s more floors than there were last time I was here,” Sara commented and pivoted on her foot to stand in front of Nyssa. 

“I have made some improvements,” Nyssa watched Sara carefully, knowing that she was being cheeky. 

Sara leaned in and kissed Nyssa and for as much as they had done mere hours ago, the simple kiss took Nyssa’s breath away. 

“Remember that elevator in Dubai?” Sara asked, pushing Nyssa’s hair away from her neck and placing kisses up on the exposed skin. “You did not last long.”

“In my defense,” Nyssa had great difficulty swallowing as Sara peppered her neck with kisses. “It was a long elevator ride.” She closed her eyes as the floor they were standing on came to a stop. “And this one is quite short.”

“Too bad,” Sara let Nyssa’s hair fall back into place and stole one last kiss before walking out into the new, improved Arrow HQ.


	10. Chapter 10

“Nyssa,” Felicity walked toward them, tight dress and heels per usual, staring at a tablet in her hand. “I am going to need my Manolos back for the...” her eyes rose from the tablet and she stopped speaking when she saw Sara. “Sara’s here.”

“Sara is here,” Sara answered, sensing that Felicity was less than happy to see her.

“The Christmas dinner,” Nyssa pipped in. She walked past Felicity with purpose. “You know you can do into my loft whenever you like.”

“I tried, but I can’t figure out your crazy lock,” Felicity turned around to follow Nyssa, leaving Sara standing by herself near the elevator.

Nyssa looked over her shoulder and smiled at Felicity. “There are some things even the great Felicity Smoak cannot hack.”

“Because it’s ancient,” Felicity quipped back. She stopped near her desk and set her tablet down. A small alarm went off and Felicity sat down at her chair. 

“What is it?” Nyssa asked, pausing at the base of a staircase that definitely hadn’t been there last time Sara was in the Arrow Cave.

Felicity typed around on the keyboard and looked up at Nyssa. “Just the delivery of very expensive Siberian vodka to Verdant.”

Nyssa grinned and started up the stairs. “I know what I’m having for dinner.” She disappeared as the stairs continued past a wall the hid the rest of them. 

Sara meandered into the Arrow Cave and looked at the suits in the cases.  She looked around the small red costume in the case and tapped it with her finger. “Thea still working with Oliver?”

“Yup,” Felicity answered. She leaned back in her chair and swung around to face Sara. “They’ve been out of town for a while casing something alien or something. Nyssa’s been covering for them.”

Sara crossed her arms as she walked slowly, almost predatory, around the cases, keeping an eye on Felicity, but taking in the changes. “How’s Verdant?”

“There were some cashflow problems a few months ago,” Felicity watched Sara carefully. “But Nyssa saved the day again.” Felicity turned around in her chair and started typing. A large screen recessed into the wall lit up with a picture of the inside of Verdant. “She opened up a VIP area in the back.”

Sara looked over the pictures. Elegant Arabic scrawl was etched into the arches over the entrance to the VIP section. Sara pointed to it.  “It just says, ‘Very Important Person Room, Felicity is mad at Sara’.”

“That’s not -”Felicity started, but realized that Sara was teasing her. She straightened up in her chair when Sara turned around. She cleared her throat. “It doesn’t say that last part.”

“But it’s true,” Sara meandered toward Felicity’s desk. She leaned on the edge of it and held Felicity’s eyes. “What’s up with you?”

Felicity looked down at her folded hands on top of her pressed dress and then back up at Sara. She checked the stairs to make sure Nyssa wasn’t coming down before she spoke. “I just don’t think that you and Nyssa together is a great idea.”

“Excuse me?” Sara asked, suddenly very defensive.

Felicity stood from her desk and picked up her tablet. She held it in her hands for comfort. “I just think that...” Felicity swallowed and looked sincerely at Sara. “She’s been through a lot. Especially lately. And...” Felicity looked to the stairs again, making sure they were still empty. “I don’t know how that sweet cinnamon roll of a person came from Ra’s Al Ghul, but she’s losing people left and right and she’s, as much as she won’t admit it, she’s vulnerable. And you’re...” Felicity took her time breathing in and out to come up with the right word that would convey her point, but not get her punched in the face. “I love you, Sara. You just… you’re never fully committed.”

Sara narrowed her eyes at Felicity feeling herself get angry with her small, blonde friend for the first time. “I  _love_ Nyssa.”

“I know you do,” Felicity could feel herself becoming more bold. She wasn’t scared of Sara. She was defensive over Nyssa and that was overriding everything. “And she loves you. She loves you like truly, madly, deeply, stupidly. She’s a… penguin who had mated for life with a humming bird who loves a flower until another one catches her attention.”

“I would never-”

“In this metaphor, flowers aren’t just people,” Felicity added. “The flowers are crises, battles, yeah some people, and now you found a job that suits you. The perfect job because you can go from time to time and never get bored.”

“I’m not bored of Nyssa,” Sara frowned hard at Felicity. “I’ve never been bored of Nyssa.”

“You sure fooled her,” Felicity uttered one last barb before a door closed up the stairs and Nyssa’s soft soled boots padded toward them.

“Felicity, what dress are you going to wear?” Nyssa called as her boots became visible. “Because if you’re going to wear the red one, I really think you should wear the Jimmy Choos.” Her entire body came into view and the smile on her face faded away when she saw the two blondes doing their best to look normal. “You both are really bad at acting normal.”

Felicity sat back down in her chair and looked up at Nyssa. “I think you’re right. The green Jimmy Choos would look really festive with my red dress.”

Nyssa held a pair of heels in her hand as she landed on the ground floor. “I’m not American  s o I don’t know how to pretend like there isn’t a  prodigious amount of tension in this room.”

“We just had a disagreement,” Sara uncrossed her arms. She inhaled through her nose, everything that Felicity said rolling around in her head like billiard balls continually smashing into everything. She caught Nyssa’s eyes and gestured up the stairs. “You’ve been living here?”

“For the most part,” Nyssa nodded. 

“Can I see it?” Sara asked. 

“It’s not very impressive,” Nyssa set Felicity’s shoes down on the desk and started back up the stairs. “But you can absolutely see if you’d like.”

Sara followed Nyssa up the stairs, not looking back at Felicity. Her feet felt heavy with each step as what Felicity had told her settled in and weighed her down. 


	11. Chapter 11

Before she knew it, they were at the top and the sound of a familiar lock was being opened. The series of metallic clicks made her smile. “You brought one of the locks from Nanda Parbat.”

“I actually had to make my own from memory,” Nyssa pushed open the door. “I’ll have to each Felicity how to open it. If this place is ever besieged, she’ll be safe behind this door.” She stepped to the side and let Sara into her loft.

Nyssa taken some of the high ceilings in the Cave as her own and created a beautiful space that instantly made Sara feel calm. A small kitchen was directly in front of the door and a bed was tucked behind a spiral staircase that led to a softly lit wall of books. The living room wasn’t much more than a couch, a wing back chair, and an electric fireplace. The only natural light in the room was from the long, thin windows bordering the ceiling. 

“This is really nice,” Sara walked deeper into the loft and spotted another part of the loft that she’d missed on first glance. An antiquated workbench was under the elevated library on the opposite wall from the bed. She could see one of Nyssa’s favorite old bows on the bench. More modern arrows were in varying stages of assembly and bows as well as other weapons lined the walls. She put her hands in her back pockets and smiled toward Nyssa. “You liked to shoot bows before it was cool.”

Nyssa laughed and walked into the room, letting the door close behind her with a soft hiss followed by a muted click. “So did you.”

Sara shook her head. “Not as well as you. Though I could hold my own with a staff.”

“Against certain opponents,” Nyssa teased as she walked toward the couch. She leaned on the back of it and looked at the electric fireplace that was turned off at the moment. 

Sara looked up at the bookcases filled to the brim with books that looked old and new. She could see the titles on the spines, covering every subject and every genre. “How many of your books did you get from Nanda Parbat?”

Nyssa sadly shook her head. “Only one. The rest were destroyed with the remainder of my things.”

“Why didn’t you contact me?” Sara asked, turning around and looking directly at Nyssa. “Laurel knew how to call me. I checked my messages after every mission. Hell, Oliver called me. I coached my dad through tying a Windsor knot while I was in between times. I would have come back to help you.”

Nyssa immediately averted her eyes. She tried to think of something to say. She wanted to give Sara a good reason. But the truth was, she didn’t have just one. There were a few reasons and Sara wouldn’t like to hear any of them.

Sara could see that she wasn’t going to get a decent answer from Nyssa. She stayed where was, a few yards from Nyssa and spoke. “Is it because you didn’t think I could come?”

Nyssa balled her fist and let it fall on the back of the couch with a small bounce. “You’re busy.”

“And because I’m…” Sara tried to think of a word that fit Felicity’s metaphor. “Flighty?” She took a step toward Nyssa. “Do you feel like I abandoned you? More than once?”

Nyssa shook her head, but her eyes betrayed her. 

Sara felt tears build up in her eyes. She was always so wrapped up in her own things that she rarely noticed that Nyssa, the only person who would always come running when she called, was hurting. Nyssa stood tall and hid her wounds well, but it felt like for the first time ever, Sara could see them, all of them. “I’m such an idiot.” She looked at Nyssa seeing that her tears were affecting Nyssa as well. “Then I just come in here and…” Sara  put her hands over her face and ran her fingers over her eyebrows. She looked up at Nyssa, but couldn’t stand the silent tears falling down her face. 

She took one step toward the door, but knew that her instinct to run, and her unbelievable skill at it were what was hurting Nyssa in the first place. Instead she changed directions and moved to Nyssa. She swept Nyssa into her arms and held her tight. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into Nyssa’s hair. “I’m so sorry.”


	12. Chapter 12

The ceiling above the bed with a polished wood that danced in with the reflection of the fireplace. Sara stared at the flames moving around with Nyssa’s head on her shoulder. She slowly stroked Nyssa’s hair and after a beat, she turned her head and kissed Nyssa’s forehead. “We don’t have to do this while I’m here if you don’t want. We can just be friends if that’s easier.”

“None of it is easy,” Nyssa answered quietly, her words swirling around Sara’s collarbone.

“I don’t want to just...” Sara sighed. She inhaled and exhaled. She knew that Nyssa was right. No matter what they did, when they parted, they’d miss each other. She knew that her pain looked different that Nyssa’s. Her pain was chaotic and bloody. Nyssa’s pain was silent and stoic. Neither one boded well for the enemies that they’d come across after parting.

Nyssa moved her fingers across Sara’s shirt that was stretched tight over her stomach. “What do you want?”

“You,” Sara answered, knowing that it was the truth and hoping that Nyssa could hear it in her voice. “Always you.”

“It seems out reality will keep us both from getting what we truly want for a time,” Nyssa stilled her hand on Sara’s stomach and closed her eyes. “Do you ever wonder what would have happened, had you not gone -”

Sara’s soft chuckle stopped her mid-sentence. Sara looked down at Nyssa who was looked up at her. “Sorry. I totally had this talk with Ollie a few weeks ago.” She put both of her arms around Nyssa and held her tightly. “If I hadn’t gotten on the yacht, I never would have met you. You never would have shown me what I was truly meant to do. I would have followed in Laurel’s footstep and gone to law school, but never really liked it.” She picked up Nyssa’s hand that was resting on her stomach and moved it to her chest. “I could feel it. There was a simulation, some kind of alien collective dream. It showed me what would have happened. And I could feel a void right here.” She pressed Nyssa’s hand down on her chest. “Because for the first few minutes, I didn’t remember you, but I felt hollow.”

Nyssa started to speak, but the door to her loft opened suddenly. They both looked toward the door where Felicity was grinning from ear to ear. “I did it!” Then she saw where Nyssa and Sara were and blushed heavily, averting her eyes. She cleared her throat. “Um, sorry. There’s just a… call for assistance.”

“Where?” Nyssa rolled out of her bed and onto her feet, in motion before Sara fully comprehended what Felicity had said.

“It’s a good old fashioned bank robbery,” Felicity held the door open as Nyssa marched past her and down the stairs. Felicity followed, leaving Sara to catch the door and scramble after them. 

Nyssa was already changing by the time Sara got to the ground floor, while Felicity gave her a rundown of the building. “Front and back exits. It looks like the backdoor has some charges on it.” She scrolled through her tablet, “I think your best bet would be the roof access.”

Nyssa nodded and pulled up her cowl. “What about the upper story windows?”

“Bullet proof,” Felicity shook her head. She looked up at Nyssa walked toward a door that wasn’t there the last time Sara was.

Nyssa shot a smile at Sara as she opened the door by the stairs. Inside it looked like the only thing in the room was a rope with a loop at the bottom. Sara knew exactly what it was and started to move to the door to stop Nyssa from going alone, but Nyssa had already put her foot in the loop, grabbed onto the rope with one hand and kicked a level near the ground that shot her up into the air and out of sight.

“Why does she love those things so much?” Sara reached for a bow, but Felicity stopped her hand.

“She’s got this,” Felicity stated.

Sara’s other fist curled at the act of being grabbed, but she’d never hit Felicity for any reason. Her released the reflex and withdrew her hand. She looked toward the monitors on the desk and the screen on the wall. “Fine, but I want to watch. And I want a comm.”

“Fine,” Felicity walked back to the desk and picked up a tiny, nearly imperceptible earpiece.

Sara put it in her ear and crossed her arms while Felicity pulled up the camera on the front of the motorcycle Nyssa was on and the scene outside the bank. “You love those rope elevators huh?”

Nyssa chuckled. “They are efficient.”

“You’re not going to stop until the entire Arrow HQ looks like Nanda Parbat are you?” Sara asked, with a smile.

“I’m just making a few improvements,” Nyssa stated. “Not all improvements have to be high tech.”

“I know, I know,” Felicity sat down at her desk, answering Nyssa’s inside joke through the comm piece in her own ear.

“What’s my ETA?” Nyssa asked.

Sara watched the cam on the motorcycle weave in and out of traffic. Nyssa sped along the highway, then took a detour through a parking lot.

“Two minutes,” Felicity answered, putting her tablet down and focusing on her computer. “I have a script working on cracking into the bank’s security cameras. It should be done...right...now.” The screen in front of Felicity populated with every camera inside of the bank.

“There are hostages,” Sara moved to the monitor and leaned on the desk. “Seven, maybe eight.” Sara licked her lips and looked at the people in black, stalking around the lobby with guns.

“According to police snipers, there are four assailants,” Felicity read off the transcript of the screen.

“Wait a second,” Sara leaned forward looking at the screen. She pulled her sleeve over her hand and used it to wipe off the screen.

“What are you doing?” Felicity asked, immediately offended that Sara would touch her screen.

“Holy shit,” Sara breathed out, finally able to make out the pig mask under the hood of one of the men with guns. He looked from side to side, jerked his head, and called out to someone else. She watched the person the man with the mask spoke to, jerk into motion. “They’re not robbers. They’re brainwashed.”

“What?” both Nyssa and Felicity asked Sara.

“Nyssa,” Sara stood up and spoke to the ceiling. “It’s Pyg.”

“Pyg?” Nyssa asked. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Sara rubbed her hands on her face. “I’ll call my dad, let him know not to let anyone shoot the robbers.” She moved toward an empty chair and sat down, pushing herself toward an empty desk.

“Who is Pyg?” Felicity asked, running a search on whoever Nyssa and Sara were talking about.

“He works for Talia,” Nyssa answered, pulling her motorcycle to a stop near the bank. “Or he used to. I never know. He’s perhaps the most vile madman I’ve ever met. He brainwashes people into doing his bidding.”

“I guess the circus has come to down,” Sara pulled her phone out of her pocket and put it to her ear. “Hey dad, I got a tip on the bank robbery.” She stood up and walked toward the open door that Nyssa had shot out of. “No. I’m not there. Nyssa is on her way.” Sara looked from the rope elevator and back at Felicity. Felicity shook her head, urging her not to go.

Sara swallowed and clenched her fists again, wanting to chase after Nyssa, but having to trust the Nyssa would be okay.


	13. Chapter 13

Sara twirled around in her chair again. “I should go.”

“It’ll be over before you get there,” Felicity assured Sara. She watched Nyssa’s heat signature drop down into a vent and hardly make a sound. 

Sara exhaled loudly and pushed off of the chair so she could lean forward and start typing. “I’m going to see if I can track down Talia. If she’s backing up Pyg, maybe she can get him to back down.”

“That’s doubtful, darling,” Nyssa whispered. “Talia has taken the splintered remains of the League of Assassins and assembled her own team. She calls them Leviathan.”

“Why are they here?” Sara asked. “Why is Talia robbing a bank? The two of you stood to inherit more money than the Queens, the Waynes, and Cat Grant put together.”

“We did,” Nyssa crouched down in the vent and pulled her bow in front of herself as she neared the vent pointing at the lobby. “But before I became the family disappointment, it was my birthright to be in charge of the money. I got to decide how it was divided. I gave Talia a small fraction of the money. Enough to live off of very comfortably anywhere in the world. I donated the rest to charity.”

“Nyss, you are reaching Mother Teresa levels of amazing,” Felicity spoke into her comm. “But first we have to neuralize a bad guy so, may I suggest the smoke arrow. Recently modified and seventeen percent more smoky.”

“Perfect,” Nyssa reached over her back in the tight space and threaded the arrow. “Would now be the time for those glasses you gave me?”

“Right on,” Felicity stated.

Sara looked at her screen while she listened to the conversation. She had to admit that she was getting jealous of Nyssa and Felicity’s friendship. It seemed they had grown close while she was gone and she loved them both, but she couldn’t help, but feel like she was missing out on some things. 

It became evident to Felicity when Sara began typing rather hard on her spare keyboard. 

“Why don’t we send it to the big screen for the big show,” Felicity swiped on her tablet and sent the security camera feed of the lobby up to the projector screen.

Sara looked up from her terminal to watched the assault. She whispered, “Love you.”

Nyssa answered in Arabic, echoing her sentiments. It was an old holdover habit from their time with the League. Any time one of them would go on a mission without the other, they would always be sure to tell each other that they loved them. 

Then, on the screen, an arrow sailed through the grates of the vent, billowing smoke as it went. When it embedded into the wall, it exploded in a rapidly expanding cloud of black. 

Just before the smoke filled the room, Nyssa dropped onto one of the assailants from the vent using him to break her fall. There wasn’t much to see on the screen until Felicity used the police heat vision feeds into the bank. It was farther away, but it was easier to see Nyssa quickly subduing the brainwashed men. 

She would knock them out and tie them up, careful not to hurt them. 

“Nyssa behind you,” Felicity squealed. 

Nyssa whirled around and they watched a red and orange man’s hand unfurl into a straight line directed at Nyssa’s face. Sara knew what he was doing and jumped over the desk in front of her to watch Pyg blow a fine white powder into Nyssa’s face that showed up blue in the heat vision. 

Pyg got Nyssa. Sara knew it was how he controlled people. It was a kind of drug. It put them in a hypnotic state where they were easily malleable. She felt her heart drop. She watched Nyssa reel a bit and wondered what he was going to do to her. 

Then, she punched him. Nyssa straightened up, grabbed onto the front of Pyg’s garment and threw him to the ground. 

“Oh wow,” Felicity breathed out. 

Nyssa put her knee on the back Pyg and pulled something from her belt to tie his hands behind his back.

Felicity giggled. “I guess you could say he’s been hog tied.” She looked over at Sara who was still staring at the red and yellow Nyssa on the screen. Felicity’s laughter died away. She looked down at her computer. “Nyssa, I’ll clear out the smoke and send in the cops.”

“I’m going out the back,” Nyssa stated. Her words weren’t celebratory in the least. She was worried and Sara heard it. 

“Nyssa, what happened?” Sara asked. “The dust? Did it get on you?”

“If it did, it was a small amount,” Nyssa hurried toward the back door of the bank. She disabled the explosives in seconds and pushed out the back door, inhaling as much fresh air as she could. 

Nyssa’s movements weren’t one of a person who was sure that a mind-control powder hadn’t been blow in their face. Sara jumped back over the desk and ran to the rope elevator. When she looked back into the Arrow Cave, Felicity nodded to her. “I’ll start changing all the traffic lights.”

Sara put her foot in the hook, grabbed onto the rope, and kicked the lever. She looked up as she flew toward the parking garage, praying that Nyssa would be okay.


	14. Chapter 14

“I’m fine,” Nyssa insisted in the comm piece. “I’m on my way back.”

Sara stopped in the parking lot before she picked up a helmet. “No. Nyssa, stay where you are. You shouldn’t be driving.”

“I’m fine,” Nyssa stated again. “I’m already on my way.”

“Felicity?” Sara asked, looking up at the ceiling. “Any reason I shouldn’t believe that?”

There was quiet and then Felicity spoke in her ear. “There hasn’t been any deviation from Nyssa’s normal driving patterns.”

Sara exhaled, hand on hips. She thought it over and walked back toward the elevator that would go down to the Arrow Cave where she waited anxiously.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Felicity spoke quietly from her place behind the desk.

Sara continued to pace. “She’ll pretend like she is even if she isn’t.”

The elevator doors opened and Nyssa stepped out in her full battle outfit, except for her veil. She held up a plastic evidence bag as she walked in. “We need to analyze this.” Inside of the bag was a folded up piece of black cloth. Sara had no doubt it was Nyssa’s missing veil.

“Did you breathe any of it?” Sara asked, stopping Nyssa’s march to the small lab off to the side.

Nyssa looked up at her. She swallowed and moved her head in an unconvincing way. “It’s possible. Which is why we need to analyze this.”

“And you need to decomp,” Felicity chimed in. She pointed to the back of the cave where the showers were located.

Nyssa looked over Sara’s shoulder at Felicity and nodded to her, acknowledging her command. She turned her face back to Sara. “Can you get this started?”

Sara accepted the SCPD evidence back in Nyssa’s hand and looked it over. “Where did you get an evidence bag?”

“Quentin asked me to start at least trying to work crime scenes like an actual detective,” Nyssa grinned. “When that didn’t work out, he told me to leave evidence for him when I could.”

“Oh shoot,” Sara suddenly remembered. “We were supposed to meet dad an hour ago.”

Felicity stood up from the desk and hesitantly walked toward the pair. “Um, I’ll start analyzing that. You two can go. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

“Are you sure?” Sara asked. She turned to look at Felicity.

Felicity sincerely nodded. “Go. I’ll call you with the results.”

Nyssa stepped around Sara and walked off toward the decontamination room. “I’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”

Sara and Felicity watched her walk off and moved together to the lab. Felicity dug out the plastic face shields while Sara grabbed the gloves.

“If she starts acting weird,” Felicity started. Then she paused. She swallowed and looked up at Sara. “If she starts acting weird, call me. Please.”

Sara nodded. She looked back to where Nyssa had disappeared to. “We probably need to get some samples from Nyssa before we go.” She put the evidence bag down and opened a drawer, finding many similar baggies. “You think blood will be enough?”

“Yeah,” Felicity answered solemnly. She took a step toward Sara. “The syringes are in the bottom drawer.”

Sara knelt down and picked them up. She tapped the sterile plastic cylinder on her palm and sighed. “I think… you were right. About me being flaky. I am. Even when it comes to Nyssa because… I know she’ll always be there. And that’s not fair.”

“Sara, I...” Felicity started to tell Sara that she didn’t mean it and she was just surprised, but that would be a lie. She meant what she said. “I just don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Me neither,” Sara closed her fingers around the syringe. “So we’ll start with making sure she didn’t get any of this stuff in her system. Then we’ll deal with me.”


	15. Chapter 15

Sara watched Nyssa from across the kitchen. She was holding the walls of her gingerbread house together while the frosting dried. Nyssa dipped her head down to see if the walls were flush and when she decided they were, she looked up, finding that she was being watched.

Her bright smile made Sara smile. “Hello.”

“Hi,” Sara waved with just her fingers. 

“Your gingerbread house isn’t going to assemble itself,” Nyssa teased while she slowly removed her hands from hers to see if it was stable. When it stood on it’s own, she looked at Sara. “I’m fine.” She gestured to Sara’s unassembled gingerbread house. “You should get to work.”

Sara looked over Nyssa’s face. She looked a little tired, but that was fair because she thwarted a bank robbery on very little sleep.  She grinned when she remembered why Nyssa didn’t get much sleep. The sex was great. The sex was incredible, but she also cherished talking with Nyssa through the night. They caught up and reminisced. They walked about the future and the past. It was the first real, intimate talk she had had with anyone in a long time and it felt all the more perfect because it was with Nyssa.

“Okay,” Sara picked up her icing tube. “But I’m warning you, I’m really good at this.”

“Neither one of you hold a candle to the master,” Quentin put down his icing tube. “Because while you two were making goo-goo eyes at each other, I made the best gingerbread house ever.”

Nyssa looked over at Quentin’s gingerbread house. “That is very impressive.” It was a standard gingerbread house with an icing door and icing shingles. “I’m worried that my house won’t even stand.”

Quentin put his hands on his hips while he surveyed Nyssa’s house. “Nah, that’s great. It’ll stand fine.” He shifted his gaze to Sara. “What are you doing over there?”

“Just goo-goo eyes apparently,” Sara poked her flat stack of cookies. She quickly drew a smiley face on the top cookie with the icing and smiled. “Done.”

Quentin tapped Nyssa and leaned toward her conspiratorially. “Would it surprise you to know that I got a lot of notes from her teachers that she couldn’t stay on task?”

“Not in the slightest,” Nyssa whispered back with a smile. 

It was an amusing joke to Sara until she realized it was just another layer on her flightiness cake. She looked down at her unassembled house. She picked up two of the sides and used the icing to attach them at the joints.

“Whoops,” Quentin patted Nyssa on the back. “I also got a lot of notes about how if someone said she couldn’t do something, she did it anyway. I’ll go start some cocoa.”

Nyssa pulled up a stool at the bar of the kitchen so she could have a nice view of Sara’s construction area. She watched Sara toil in silence for the longest time before offering, “Taking the metaphor a little seriously, aren’t we?”

Sara looked up. She had spent the whole time she was working on the gingerbread house thinking about all the times she’d let Nyssa down. Nyssa had let her down a few times too, but the scales were heavily on her side. She sighed and put down the icing. Her gingerbread house as lopsided and looked like something out of a horror film. She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

Nyssa tiled her head, her face softening. “You don’t have to be-”

“I do though,” Sara interrupted her. “I have to be sorry so I can fix it.” She rubbed her eyes. “Because no matter where I go or when I go, you’re always there, in the back of my mind.”

“But you can’t stay,” Nyssa said the words that broke both of their hearts. “You have to save the world.”

“I don’t feel like I’m saving anything,” Sara looked down at her gingerbread house.

“You-” Nyssa started to speak, but stopped abruptly.

Sara looked up to find Nyssa with her eyes squeezed closed, putting her hands on the sides of her head. “Nyssa?”

“I’m fine,” Nyssa breathed out. She slowly opened her eyes. “It’s just a headache.”

“That’s not a headache,” Sara bypassed the usual route around the bar, instead jumping over it. She put her hands on Nyssa’s waist, “C’mon. Lie down and I”ll call Felicity.”


	16. Chapter 16

Nyssa was still on the couch, but her eyes were focused and she had full control of her faculties. But it didn’t stop Sara from worrying. She sat on the ground in front of the couch and gently stroked Nyssa’s side. 

“What about your kidneys?” Sara asked, moving her hand from Nyssa’s side to her lower back. 

Nyssa caught Sara’s eyes. “I’m fine. It’s just a headache. People have them all the time.”

Sara sighed softly and rested her chin on the couch cushion. “I just want to make sure.”

“Come here,” Nyssa tugged on Sara’s arm, pulling her onto the couch with her. Sara’s arms easily snaked around Nyssa’s body, holding her close. Her hand came to rest on the back of Nyssa’s head, cradling it against her shoulder.

Nyssa held onto Sara, but loosely and comfortably. “I’m fine. I would tell you if I didn’t think I was. We’ve both seen what Pyg can do. I wouldn’t put you in that kind of danger. If he could control me...”

“I won’t let him,” Sara cursed the thought. She couldn’t imagine Nyssa being controlled. She was so strong willed and sure of herself. Someone taking that away from Nyssa infuriated her, even in theory. She turned onto her back and Nyssa wriggled until she was on her side between Sara and the back of the couch, her head resting on Sara’s shoulder.

They were both quiet for a long time. The fire crackled on the opposite wall and the only other sound was Quentin making some calls in the other room. They could hear him talking, but couldn’t make out any of the words. 

“I love you,” Sara kissed Nyssa’s forehead. “I know I never told you enough when we were together. Or now. I’m just… sorry.”

Nyssa watched her own hand play with the hem of Sara’s shirt. “Please don’t be sorry.”

“But I am,” Sara answered. “And I should be. Felicity was right. I feel this need to be close to you, but I get scared and push you away. It’s not fair.” She closed her eyes and pressed the side of her face to Nyssa’s forehead. “Because I love you so much. Which also makes this so stupid because I’m doing it to you again.”

“I agreed to it,” Nyssa confessed. “I cherish every moment I get to spend with you.”

Sara turned on her side to face Nyssa. She touched Nyssa’s face and looked into her eyes. She could see every drop of love Nyssa had, offered up to her. She knew she didn’t deserve it, but she dove into it. She kissed Nyssa, trying to convey all the regret and adoration she had for Nyssa. She loved her and missed her and wished she wasn’t to terrified of her own feelings. 

“My darling,” Nyssa broke the kiss with her sort utterance. “I would endure any amount of pain to be with you.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Sara whispered.

Nyssa didn’t have an answered. She knew the push and pull of Sara Lance was a game she’d always fall for. She loved Sara more than anything and Sara’s insecurities came between them time and time again.

Sara took both of Nyssa’s hands and held them against her chest. “I’m going to stay. Nate and the guys can handle themselves.”

“You can’t-”

Sara interrupted Nyssa with a short, swift kiss. “I can. And I will. I’m done running.”


	17. Chapter 17

It was just after one in the morning when Sara and Nyssa left Quentin’s house. Sara told them it was just because they wanted to get back to her apartment, but when Sara drove away from her dad’s house, it was toward Verdant. 

Nyssa had fallen asleep in the passenger’s seat only a few blocks away, but their intertwined hands made her smile every time she looked over at Nyssa. She  was still worried about her though. Her headache seemed to have lessened, but there was a fair chance that it was just Nyssa trying to quell her fears.

Her worry was one hundred percent grounded in what the powder’s effect on Nyssa would be. She didn’t even think about Nyssa being used to attach her until Nyssa brought it up. 

The red stoplight was the only thing lighting up the inside of the car and her car was the only one in sight. She picked up Nyssa’s hand and watched the sleeping warrior while she kissed her hand. Nyssa didn’t stir and for a single, panicked second Sara thought she may have stopped breathing. But the gently and slow rise and fall of her chest let Sara breath a little easier as the light turned green. 

She pulled into the secret parking garage a few minutes later and stopped the car. She put it in park using her left hand and turned the car off. The neon lights made the inside of the car feel darker and more cozy. 

Sara leaned back in her seat and looked over at Nyssa, who hadn’t stirred a bit. She just watched her sleep until Nyssa’s body realized they weren’t moving anymore.

Her long brown lashes parted slowly, sharp eyes immediately focused on Sara. Sara immediately smiled. 

“How long have we been sitting here?” Nyssa asked, unfurling her hand from Sara’s so that she could sit up straight and stretch her back. 

Sara shook her head. “A few minutes. You were tired.”

“I still am,” Nyssa smirked. “But you could have awakened me when we arrived.”

“Nah,” Sara leaned over the console and kissed Nyssa. It was short and quick and an impulse that Sara had to give into. 

They walked into the Arrow Cave, hand in hand, finding Felicity sitting in her chair,  wrapped up in a blanket with her eyes closed. The large mass spectrometer was humming in the lab, still analyzing. Nyssa disengaged from Sara and walked toward it, gently brushing the top of Felicity’s head as she walked by.

Sara felt jealousy pang in her chest. The kind of affection that Nyssa showed Felicity was irritating, not only because it showed that they were close, but it also affirmed that Felicity was close enough to Nyssa to know how devastating Sara could be to their mutual friend. 

Felicity had woken up herself and covered her mouth as she yawned and spoke at the same time. “What time is it?”

Sara pulled her phone out of her back pocket and clicked on the screen. “One forty-seven.”

“A.M.?” Felicity asked, sitting up straight. “So much for looking well rested at the dinner tonight.”

“Tonight?” Sara asked back, starting to make her way toward the lab. 

Felicity got up and followed her. “Yeah.” She grabbed Sara and pulled her back, keeping from out of Nyssa’s earshot. When Sara looked at her, she nodded her head toward Nyssa. “How is she?”

“I don’t know if the headache really went away or she’s lying so we don’t worry,” Sara crossed her arms, looking at Nyssa, lean down and peer into a microscope. 

“Experience says she’s lying,” Felicity sighed. “Well, let’s go see if we can help.” She patted Sara’s back as she walked toward the lab. “I hope you haven’t forgotten everything you learned on the Amazo.”


	18. Chapter 18

“There is no amount of concealer to cover up how much I don’t sleep,” Felicity looked at herself in the mirror of Nyssa’s Verdant bathroom. 

“You look amazing,” Nyssa stood behind her. 

Felicity flashed a smile. “I know you’re just being nice, but it’s working.”

Nyssa smiled back and touched Felicity’s back. “I’m going to make sure that my outfit made it back on the motorcycle in one piece.”

She exited her apartment and ascended the stairs. In the corner of the room, tucked away in the tiny lab, Sara was seated at the desk. Her feet were crossed on the surface of the desk and she was reclined in the chair with the tablet in her lap. Sara tapped a pen to her bottom teeth as the read the analysis.

Nyssa continued to watch her. She watched the hard crease of Sara’s brow and the focus with which she read. Something about Sara had come back from her time with the Legends hardened. Nyssa always knew that Sara was full of dark and rage, but it had all solidified at the surface, creating an unstoppable force. 

“Are you going to keep staring at me or are you going to come over here?” Sara asked, not looking up.

Nyssa cracked a smile. Of course Sara knew she was there. She remembered teaching Sara awareness. She had taken Sara into the words and made her sit in the midst of tall trees and falling leaves. They sat there and listened. They were quiet for hours, not saying a word until they were both aware of everything around them – every rodent, every insect, every fluttering leaf. 

Nyssa’s smile widened remembering a kind of awareness that Sara had shown her afterwards. The kind of awareness that only comes with an out of body experience. The kind of awareness that is gripping leaves and pushing her heels into the mud to get just a little closer. The kind of awareness that came with Sara’s smile and the light in her eyes. 

Sara looked up when Nyssa didn’t move. She started to move the tablet to the table, “Nyss?”

Nyssa blinked and refocused. She took a few slow steps toward Sara. “Sorry. I was thinking about that time in the woods.”

Sara chuckled. “You’ll have to be more specific. There were a lot of times in the woods.”

“True,” Nyssa lightly took the last few steps to Sara. “But I was recalling the first time.”

Sara thought back to the day that turned into the night. She dropped the tablet on the counter and pulled Nyssa into her lap. “That was something special.”

Nyssa’s stomach fluttered when Sara’s hands moved around her body. They moved from her hips and around her waist before settling lazily across her thighs. She looked into Sara’s eyes and prayed that Sara would always make her stomach flutter like that. 

“How do you feel?” Sara asked. She had the urge to check Nyssa’s lymph nodes and shin a pen light into her eyes. She resisted. She just wanted to sit with Nyssa for a moment, just the two of them. 

They were both swept up in the moment. Nyssa slowly lowered her forehead to touch Sara’s. She closed her eyes and felt Sara’s hands move up her back and into her hair. Sara never felt as calm or as safe as she did than when she was with Nyssa. She could just float away and know that Nyssa would protect her and love her for eternity. 

An abrupt ringing brought their moment to an end. 

Sara growled and snatched her phone off of the counter. She saw the caller ID and pressed the green answer button. “What?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Ray stuttered out. “Am I interrupting something?”

“As usual,” Sara looked up at Nyssa who had sat up and started looking at the analysis on the tablet. “Yes.” She straightened out one of Nyssa’s hairs that had tucked under itself. “What is it?”

“We are having some – a lot… we are having a lot of difficulty,” Ray had to speak loudly over the sounds of rumbling in the background. “And so we thought. Hey, let’s stop by Star City of the current time and see if our Captain is ready to get back on board.”

“You guys said you could handle it for Christmas,” Sara sighed. She leaned her head back and rubbed her eyes. 

“It’s only Christmas?” Ray asked. “It feels like a lot longer.”

Sara took a deep breath. She was going to have to let the team down easy and explain the situation. She was going to have to name a new captain to take her place. “Uh, I actually wanted to see everyone. Can we meet tonight? Around eleven. In the field next to the Queen Mansion”

There was a smal explosion and Ray quickly added. “Perfect. We’ll meet you at Queen Mansion adjacent field at eleven. Bye.”

When Sara put her phone down, Nyssa looked expectantly at her. Sara put her hand on Nyssa’s thigh and shook her head so that her hair fell out of her face. “Waverider is on fire or something.”

“That sounds serious,” Nyssa quirked an eyebrow.

“It’s not,” Sara kissed Nyssa and patted her leg. “We need to go get ready.”

“What did you get from the results?” Felicity asked, walking down the stairs in her dress, her heels in her hand.

Sara stood up after Nyssa. “That it is a plant based compound that would have tranqed a rhino by now.”

Felicity’s eyes flickered to Nyssa. “How do you feel?”

“I feel fine,” Nyssa shrugged. 

Sara ushered Nyssa to the stairs, but caught Felicity’s eyes when Nyssa wasn’t looking. She nodded toward the lab. 

Felicity nodded and walked to the lab when they were out of sight. She set down her heels and picked up her tablet, going over the results herself. 


	19. Chapter 19

The car that drove them to the Queen mansion was posh and too slow for Sara’s liking. Unless she was in a time period before cars, she preferred that be going well over fifty-five. 

Sara moved around in her seat again and Nyssa noticed. She looked over at Felicity to see if she noticed as well, but Felicity was engrossed in her tablet. 

Nyssa crossed her arms and leaned against the door. She looked out the window and saw snow start to fall. It was going to be a white Christmas after all. 

There was a sullen mood in the car and Nyssa knew what it had to be about. Finally she snapped, “Alright, why don’t you both tell me why you’re looking at me like a bomb about to detonate?”

Sara’s head snapped to Nyssa. “You’re not a bomb.” She reached over and took Nyssa’s hand. “We’re just worried.”

“I read the same results,” Nyssa tapped her fingers on the window. “What is causing the pair of you so much concern?”

“The variables,” Felicity stated. She looked up from her tablet. “Any number of these compounds could kill someone.”

“Some of them were psychedelic agents, but they would have already affected you by now,” Sara picked up Nyssa’s hand and put it in her lap. “There are a lot of things that should be happening, that aren’t.”

Nyssa slowly nodded. She could feel it. It was an impending sense of something terrible. “Maybe I shouldn’t go to this dinner. Everyone will be there.”

“I’ll be there,” Sara ran her fingers over Nyssa’s hand. She moved them up Nyssa’s arm and back down to her wrist. “Felicity will be there too.” She glanced over at Felicity who appreciated being included in Nyssa’s support system. “We’ve got you.”

Nyssa’s jaw flexed. She inhaled deeply and let go. “Alright, but there better be pumpkin pie at this dinner. I quite liked it at Thanksgiving.”

“I made sure Oliver asked the chef to make it,” Felicity kicked her foot out to affectionately bump Nyssa’s shin.

Nyssa smiled. “Thank you.”

“You ate nearly an entire pie by yourself,” Felicity chuckled. “How could I let the ever elegant Nyssa Al Ghul go without stuffing her face?”

Nyssa laughed. “I don’t know that I could call it stuffing my face.”

“I believe her,” Sara nodded toward Felicity. “I’ve seen you go at baklava.”

Nyssa ducked her head, long curls falling around her face. “Alright. I may have a bit of a sweet tooth.”

The car pulled to a stop and when they looked out the window, the Queen mansion was lit up in all it’s glory. A rigid man in a suit opened the door next to Nyssa and helped her out. Nyssa helped out Sara and Felicity, kindly thanking the man, but wanting to do it herself. 

The man in the suit did open the door for them. The sounds of Christmas music being played on the piano and the smell of delicious food hit them immediately. Tall, decorated trees stood in the foyer and lights hung from the ceiling. 

The man in the suit stood at the door and announced, “Ms. Smoak, Ms. Lance, and Ms. Al Ghul.”

“Merry Christmas, Winston,” Felicity moved in front of the man. 

He immediately softened and opened his arms to her. “Merry Christmas, Ms. Smoak.”

Nyssa felt a hand on her back and leaned into it. Sara slid her hand all the way around her waist to walk into the living room with her. Everyone had already gathered, sitting around a roaring fire. 

“There they are,” Oliver stood from his seat. His suit was sharp and traditional with a narrow lapel and a green bowtie. He smiled at his friends walking in. 

“Sorry we’re late,” Sara said and left Nyssa’s side to hug him. 

“I heard there was some trouble,” Oliver hugged Sara, then moved to Nyssa. “How are you feeling?”

“Great,” Nyssa smiled through the obvious lie. 

Quentin stood from the couch. He could see that Nyssa wasn’t really doing great. She looked tired and anxious. He wrapped his arms around her. “You sure? I’m sure there’s some place to lay down around here.” He gestured to the upstairs floors. 

“I’m fine,” Nyssa assured him. “I wouldn’t want to miss my first Christmas dinner. I hear there’s pumpkin pie.”

“Well, I certainly won’t get in your way this time,” Quentin waved his hand at Sara with a grin, “I almost lost some fingers last time.”

Sara laughed and looked to Nyssa. “I wouldn’t get between Nyssa and dessert. Especially with so many knives around.” She put her arm back around Nyssa. 

Nyssa settled back into Sara’s protective hold and found immense comfort in it. It made her wonder if she was just overreacting about what was in her system. Maybe it really was a whole lot of nothing. Maybe she didn’t actually inhale enough to do anything. 


	20. Chapter 20

They all sat down to dinner around the long, formal dining table. The food to ample as were the drinks. Nyssa was very measuring in how much she drank because she didn’t want it to trigger something.

She could tell that Sara wasn’t as happy as she should have been. She wasn’t enjoying herself as much as she should. Sara was worried. There was a lot on her mind. Apart from Nyssa’s potential illness, there was Pyg who was still on the loose and Sara having to tell her team that she was leaving them. 

“I heard Sara’s been on a lot of adventures,” Diggle looked across the table.

Sara looked up from her inner thoughts to join the table conversation. “I have been everywhere and everywhen.”

“Sara is quite the time traveling Cassanova,” Nyssa cut into her turkey and took a bite. She smiled over at Sara. “Seducing the women of past and future, I’m told.”

“That is not surprising,” Thea grinned. “Start any Trojan wars in the past?”

“No,” Sara smirked. Then she cocked her head. “Well, actually….okay maybe one or two. But I always finished a war before I left.”

“What does your ship look like?” Thea asked. “I kind of picture a squashed silver pancake.”

“That’s close,” Sara nodded. “More plane shaped.”

“How does it work?” Oliver asked. He waved a fork in the air. “Some kind of time...jump… I don’t know.”

“I don’t either, exactly,” Sara smiled. “That would be a Ray Palmer question.”

“We should have invited him,” Felicity looked over at Oliver.

“He’ll be landing in the field across the road in a few hours if you want to say hi,” Sara picked up her water and completely missed the tension when Felicity mentioned Ray to Oliver. She did watched Nyssa and Felicity switch plates to finish the things the other didn’t like. She couldn’t help the stab of jealousy. She knew that Nyssa and Felicity weren’t romantically involved, but it was the darkness inside of her. It was a possessive beast.

Oliver stood up and picked up a bottle of wine on the buffet table. He walked around the table filling up wine glasses. He spilled some near Nyssa and apologized. “I’ll have to get some tips for pouring wine from Winston when he gets back from vacation.”

“He is a fantastic decorator,” Nyssa commented. “The house is beautiful.” 

“I’ll tell him you said that,” Oliver put his hand on Nyssa’s shoulder before moving to refill Diggle’s glass. “Just so everyone knows, there are plenty of rooms for everyone to stay the night so drink all you want. The sheets are clean.” He sat back down at his spot at the head of the table and looked around. He smiled faintly. “I’d like to thank you all for being here. I knew we don’t all get together that often, but I’m glad we could make it work for Christmas.” He raised his glass in a toast. 

Everyone else raised their glasses as well before clinking them together with those around them and taking a drink. 

Sara set her wine down and something caught her eye. The wine in her glass started to ripple. It started small, but slowly grew. She looked up and the chandelier was swinging. 

“What is that?’ Quentin asked, tossing his napkin onto the table. He stood with everyone else at the table, looking for the source of the thundering noise and the vibrations. 

“That sounds familiar,” Sara walked away from the table and toward the front door. 

The rest of the group followed her out and caught the source. A large silver ship was streaking toward the house, a trail of fire behind it.

“I’m going to take a wild leap and say that it’s not supposed to do that,” Felicity mentioned. 

The Waverider arched hard toward the ground until the wing caught the ground, sending it spinning and tumbling toward the Queen Mansion. The crushed a fountain and upended hedges before coming to a slow stop just across the driveway from the house. 

A large gash in the back of the plane explained why it fell out of the sky and the source of the fire. 

Sara was running toward the ship before anyone else could move. 

“Something’s off,” Oliver stayed in place, watching Sara command the ship to open for her. 

“Get the bows,” Nyssa told him before following Sara.


	21. Chapter 21

The boarding door opened and the majority of the Legends tumbled out, all already taking their Legends forms. 

“What happened?” Sara asked, hands on her hips. 

“Someone shot us down,” Ray pushed to his feet in his Atom suit. He was still panting as he measured with his arms out wide. “Big gun.”

Thea stood at the door of the mansion and watched what was happening on the lawn, but something behind her made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She whipped an arrow out of the quiver Oliver gave her and threaded it as she turned. She let the arrow fly and it found the shoulder of a masked man who had been running across the second floor balcony. 

Nyssa turned around, seeing the man take the arrow out of his shoulder and continue running. Another man ran across the balcony in the opposite direction. They were all wearing different style animal masks. 

“What are they doing?” Felicity whispered.

“It’s a like a… a shooting gallery,” Oliver spoke. 

Nyssa turned around, her eyes shooting around the well lit lawn of the Queen Mansion. “Sara! It’s Pyg.”

“Who’s Pyg?” Nathan asked, dusting off his coat.

“He works for Nyssa’s sister,” Sara explained. “He’s trying to kill her.” 

“Nyssa?” Ray asked. He looked up toward the house and managed to pick Nyssa out of the group. He walked up the steps with a smile on his face. “It’s so nice to meet you. We’ve heard a lot.”

Nyssa was a little confused at the timing of the introductions. But nodded to him nonetheless. 

“What do we do about them?” Felicity asked, pointing to the men inside the house still running from side to side. 

Ray put his hands on his hips and asked Nyssa, “So your sister is trying to kill you?” 

“It’s not the first time,” Nyssa looked around. “I just don’t understand why she’d shoot down your ship. Or how she’d even know about it.”

“We did meet your dad once if that means anything,” Ray shrugged.

Nyssa looked to Sara who waved it off. It wouldn’t have made a difference. She was sure Ra’s wouldn’t have told Talia anyway.

“But who knows Pyg and wants the Waverider out of commission?” Sara asked, looking out into the darkness. 

No one seemed to know besides her and the men that stepped out of the trees, one who was donning a pig mask. The other had a large advanced looking rocket launcher over his shoulder. 

“Daark,” Nyssa’s eyes narrowed. 

“So I found out a fun trick,” Damien dropped the launcher on the ground. “Did you know that the Waverider is equipped with a self-destruct? To keep it from falling into the wrong hands or something equally stupid. But you need the captain to initiate.” He took out a small phone looking device. 

More masked men emerged from the woods and stood around Pyg and Damien. The three archers near the house pointed their arrows at them. 

Damien leaned over a bit to Pyg and whispered. Pyg spoke to the men around him and they all started marching for the house. The men already in the house ran at the bunch in the doorway. 

“Felicity,” Oliver put an arrow in one of the men running at them. “Get out of here.”

Quentin whirled around, not sure where to shoot or who to shoot. He remembered the men they had picked up at the bank robbery. None of them knew what they’d done. He didn’t want to kill an innocent person.

“Quentin,” Nyssa shot another man in the leg to keep him from advancing on them. “Please take Felicity somewhere safe.” They rushed down the stairs and down the driveway to the garages. 

Sara hopped into the Waverider and grabbed her emergency batons. “Don’t kill them. Just subdue,” she instructed her team.

They all nodded and flew into action. 

Nyssa had run to her side to block an attack and informed her, “Felicity and  Quentin are safe.”

Sara nodded. That was good, but they weren’t the ones she was worried about Damien and Pyg attacking. She knew how they worked and they knew the realtionship Sara and Nyssa had had before. “I want you to get somewhere safe too.”

Nyssa didn’t acknowledge what Sara had said. She continued shooting arrows and hitting their attackers with her bow. Damien and Pyg hadn’t moved the entire time and she was getting suspicious. She pulled an arrow and pointed it right at Pyg. 

Before she could let it go an intense pain radiated through her body. She screamed and fell to her knees. All fighting stopped and all eyes were on Nyssa who was writhing on the ground.  She screamed again. It felt like her insides were on fire.

“Stop!” Sara shouted at Damien who had a sadistic look on his face watching Nyssa on the ground. 

Damien pressed the device in his hand and Nyssa’s body went limp.  She gasped for breath and grabbed at the grass.

“To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure this would work,” Damien looked at the device in his hand.

Pyg looked up at Damien. “I told you the organic nanites wouldn’t be detected.”

“Not that,” Damien shrugged. “I just wasn’t sure the Beloved would destroy everything for the Princess.” He looked at Sara. “I knew Nyssa would do anything for you, but I wasn’t sure you’d return the favor. You never seemed as devoted as she was.”

“There are tiny little nanites inside of the Princess,” Pyg explained giddily. “Every time we press this button, they started vibrating. There are hundred of them and when they all vibrate together inside of her body, the pain is,” he laughed, “excrutiating.”

Damien pressed the button again and Nyssa screamed. Her body convulsed, but she managed to push to her hands and knees, trying with no avail to get away from the pain. 

“Stop it!” Sara yelled at him, dropping to her knees next to Nyssa. She touched Nyssa’s shoulder and could feel her muscles all clench and twist. 

The vibrations stopped and Nyssa fell into Sara’s arms. There were tears streaked down Nyssa’s face and sweat covering her body around her elegant dress.

Sara gritted her teeth. She knew what  Damien was about to say. 

“Blow up your ship or we rip the Heir to the Demon apart from the inside out,” Damien spoke. 

Oliver pointed an arrow at Damien and let it go. One of the masked men threw himself in front of the arrow just before it got to him. 

“That’s enough!” Pyg yelled and all the men converged on the people still standing. 

“Gideon,” Sara quietly spoke in the midst of the chaos. “Initiate self-destruct.”

Gideon’s loud voice cut through the fighting. “Self-Destruct password, Captain?”

Sara  pushed Nyssa’s hair out of her face . “Ta-er Al-Usfar.”

“Don’t do it,” Nyssa put her hand on Sara’s face. “They’ll kill me anyway.”

Sara nodded. She looked from Nyssa to the ship that had started the countdown. “I know.” She looked down at Nyssa. “I have to get that remote from Damien.”  But Sara had doubts that she could get the remote before he killed Nyssa. She had resigned herself to holding Nyssa in the shadow of a ship that would blow them all to bits in a few seconds. She wouldn’t watch them kill Nyssa. She couldn’t.

“You can cancel the self-destruct right?” Nyssa rasped.

Sara nodded again. “ I think so .”

Nyssa looked around for some way to help. She was afraid that the nanites inside of her would just keep  trying to kill her, keeping Sara on the sidelines . She saw an open panel on the outside of the ship. “Stop the countdown and get Damien.” She pushed herself up and kissed Sara. When Sara broke the kiss, she touched Sara’s face with a soft smile and then lunged for the open panel of the ship. 

She jammed her hand inside and sparks flew. Nyssa’s entire body convulsed until her hand fell limply out of the panel. 

“Nyssa!” Sara screamed. She scrambled to get to Nyssa and picked her up. She felt for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there. 

“It’s not working anymore,” Ray knelt down next to Sara. He pointed to Damien who was punching the device in his hand over and over again, without avail. “She fried the nanites.”

“Gideon,” Sara picked Nyssa up and carried her into the ship. “Abort self-destruct. Start on-board diagnostics.”

“Is she okay?” Amaya asked, rounding the corner into the ship.

“I need you to take her to med bay,” Sara handed Nyssa off to Amaya. Amaya struggled for a moment before a hazy blue bear appeared behind her to help. Sara carefully took the quiver from Nyssa and stopped for a second to touch Nyssa’s face before running out the door. 

There was an army of masked men outside of the ship waiting for her. They were no match for her. She was angry. She had opened up and let herself be with Nyssa and now Nyssa had been attacked.

She pulled an arrow out and stabbed one of the men in the abdomen. She heaved him off of the ground and threw him over her shoulder. Another one punched at her, but she ducked it and landed a knee to his stomach. 

“You can’t kill them!” Oliver called to her. 

She wasn’t  listening . She had let the monster out. She was going to rip as many of them apart with her bare hands as she could. 

Firestorm  buzzed her overhead. He called down, “Sara, Damien is getting away.”

She looked toward the treeline and saw the Damien and Pyg had gone. She picked up Nyssa’s discarded bow,  stepped out of her heels, and ran into the woods after them. She could hear others behind her. Probably Oliver, Thea, and Ray. But she wasn’t going to stop and regroup. She was going to run head first into the fray.

She couldn’t think of anything except ripping Damien Daark’s throat out. She could see where they had escaped from. She could see where they were going. She followed their trail into what was surely a trap, but it didn’t matter. 

She burst out onto the road and heard the truck speeding away before she saw it. She pulled an arrow and let it rip. It flew fast and true, nailing the rear tire. Then she shot another, taking out the other tire. The truck swerved before rumbling to a stop. 

“Firestorm,” Sara looked up at her flaming angel overhead. “Light it up.”

“Sara, I don’t think,” he looked down at her. He gestured to the truck where a number of brainwashed fighters were crawling out. “it’s not a good idea.”

“Fine,” Sara growled. “I’ll do it my way.” She ran at the truck and bullets started flying. She tackled one of the fighters to the ground and saw Damien running away as she fell. 

She put her knee on the face of the man she tackle and used her bow to shoot at Damien. Another brainwashed soldier threw himself in front of the arrow. “Alright, so I need something faster than an arrow.” She picked up the gun she had knocked out of the man’s hands and ran after Damien. 

“Kill the Beloved!” Pyg cackled before running after Damien. 

All the guns turned on her.  There was nothing she could do. She put her hands up before she was surrounded by a ring of fire. She looked up at see Firestorm swirling above her, protecting her from the bullets and the fighters. When the fire died down, they were all in varying states of distress, but none of them were trying to kill her. 

A shot of red light flew up from the forest ahead of them and she knew that Damien and Pyg were both gone into another place and another time.

Sara threw her gun into the darkness where Damien and Pyg had disappeared.

Ray stood next to Sara and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to go check on Nyssa.”

“C’mon,” Thea put her hand on Sara’s other arm. 

Sara begrudgingly followed the rest of the group back to the ship. There was a crowd around Nyssa while Felicity, Amaya,  and Quentin worried over her. Felicity was looking at a screen on the computer while using her other hand to move a scanner over Nyssa’s body. When she saw Sara walk in, Felicity gave a report. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but the nanites had started to disintegrate. They were organic matter so they’ll just get flushed out of her system on their own. They don’t work anymore.” Felicity put the down the scanner and looked at her friend with a heavy sigh. “I can’t believe I missed it.”

“I missed it too,” Sara crossed her arms at the end of the bed. She couldn’t look at Nyssa like that anymore, lying unconscious. She turned on her heel and walked out of the door. “Gideon, status report.”

“Primary engines damaged,” Gideon stated.

“Jefferson, Ray,” Sara barked, unzipping the back of her dress and walking toward the Captain’s Quarters, “Get the engines repaired. We’re going after Damien Daark.”

She walked into her quarters and moved to her wardrobe. She pulled out some pants and a shirt, ready to set course for wherever Damien went off to. She tossed them onto the Captain’s desk and placed her hands on it. She had no idea where he went. She had no idea how to find him. She closed her eyes and hung her head. 

“Nyssa?” Feliciy called through the halls of the ship. “Where are you going?”

Sara looked up at the sound of the Nyssa’s name. She heard her dad say something, but she couldn’t make it out. 

By the time, she got her dress rezipped and got outside, the last of the party was disappearing into the front door of the Queen Manor.

Sara curiously pushed open the door and heard the sounds of furniture moving around. She followed the noise to the dining room and found everyone sitting down to finish dinner. Another few leaves had been added to the table and more chairs had been carried in. Mismatched plates filled in the new spaces and Sara found that the Legends had joined her Star City friends for Christmas dinner.

“Pass the ham,” Mick gruffly asked. “Please.”

Nyssa sat at her place at the table. She looked a bit weak, but otherwise in good spirits. The chair next to her was reverently vacant.

Sara looked around the table one last time before walking to her seat. She sat down lightly next to Nyssa and looked over at her. Nyssa smiled adoringly at her and Sara felt the tension melt away. She touched Nyssa’s shoulder and ran her hand down Nyssa’s arm to her hand. 

“How do you feel?” Nyssa asled quietly as conversations bubbled up around the table. 

“I should be asking you that,” Sara took Nyssa’s hand and placed it in her lap. 

Nyssa leaned over and kissed Sara’s cheek. “They threatened everything you’ve worked so hard for. It’s not the first time someone has tried to kill me.”

“It’s the first time someone has tried to kill you to get to me,” Sara confessed what really upset her. 

Nyssa dropped a loving kiss on Sara’s lips. “You are quite notorious now. It won’t be the last time someone comes after you.”

Sara took a deep breath. She couldn’t stay in Star City and just let people come after her. She especially couldn’t stay in the city with Nyssa. Their relationship was well known. Nyssa was going to be targeted over and over again. 

But the lights around the table reminded her that it was Christmas. She was going to have to enjoy her time in Star City because it was limited. She speared a green bean and popped it into her mouth. 

“You wouldn’t have been out of the med bay as fast if it weren’t for the pumpkin pie,” Felicity teased Nyssa across the table.

Nyssa chuckled,  “The heart wants what it wants.”


	22. Chapter 22

Sara walked back onto the ship and kicked off her high tops. “I didn’t like the 80s the first time.”

“But we got what we came for,” Mick tossed up a glowing rock and caught it in his hand. “And you didn’t start any fights over ladies.”

“There’s a reason for that,” Sara smiled. She sauntered off toward her quarters and called. “Gideon, prepare for take off.”

Mick followed her toward the Captain’s Quarters and set the glowing rock down on the desk. “There you go, Boss.”

Nyssa  set down her book and picked up the rock .  She smiled at Mick, “You know I’m not your boss right?”

“Yeah,” he winked at Nyssa. “Sure you’re not.”

Sara grinned at them from the corner of the room, but tried not to look too pleased when Mick glanced over at her. 

Nyssa looked  over the small stone . “I’ll take this to the vault. Thank you.”

Mick nodded and walked out of the room. 

Martin came marching into the room with a book in his hand and a  tablet in the other. “The translation of this Aramaic text you did is incredible. It changes everything I-” He stopped talking when he looked up and saw Sara was in the room as well. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were back.”

“Quick and dirty retrieval,” Sara shrugged. She gestured to the door, “We’re about to take off.”

Martin nodded. He moved his gaze to Nyssa. “I hope we can continue discussing this over tea later.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Nyssa smiled. 

Martin stepped out of the room and Sara moved to the desk. She leaned on the side of it and smiled at Nyssa. “How are you liking the life of a Legend?”

“It’s fascinating,” Nyssa swiveled in her chair to face Sara. She put her fingers through the loops of Sara’s acid washed jeans and pulled her into the chair. “The company isn’t that bad either.”

Sara dipped her head down and kissed Nyssa. Her lips moved to Nyssa’s neck. “I have a surprise for you.” 

“Oh?” Nyssa asked, her eyes closed.

Sara pulled away and looked over Nyssa’s face. “We’re going on a date tonight. A real date outside of the ship. The fabrication lab is already printing your dress.”

“A real date?” Nyssa asked, grinning from ear to ear. “Where and when?”

“It’s a surprise,” Sara stood up off of the chair. “Once I get changed we can make the jump.”

Nyssa watched Sara move to the wardrobe in the room. She was quick to her feet. “Then by all means, let me help you get changed.”


End file.
